Home
by TheModerator
Summary: When Latias ends up on the other side of the world she enlists the help of the teenager who saved her. Together, the pair will stop at nothing to get her back home. Big action, Awkward and Heartwarming moments ensue as they travel half the way around the world to reunite Latias with her Mate. Perfect for fans of the Hunger games, CHERUB or Alex Rider. "Get hooked now, or regret it"
1. Chapter 1

_For the purposes of both personal and corperate confidentiality, I am required by law to state that, while the places in this fictional collection are REAL, the events, procedures and/or people taking place, used and/or involved are fictional and bear no resemblance to real life, living persons or operating companies, systems or procedures._

_To abide by the FF upload rules - all characters are fictional, and property of their respective owners (Namely Pokemon, property of Nintendo / Gamefreak)._

_Any resemblance to persons living or dead is dead freaky, unintentional, and purely coincidental._

* * *

**Dinnington, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England.**  
**3rd January 2014, 10:53.**

"THIS IS BULLSHIT!" Mac screamed, as he hurled the controller across the room and into the sofa for the 5th time in an hour.

"HOW ARE YOU EVEN MOVING AROUND!? YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE THUMBS!". That sentence didn't actually make a lot of sense without context.

The 40" TV screen Mac was sat in front of was split horizontally, with "DEFEATED" on the top half in red letters, and on the bottom half, "VICTORY" in green letters. The score was in the middle, and showed 200-7500. It was the score screen for an aged but still popular first person shooter. It was also the 5th time that Mac had been beaten in the hour. Considering before this losing streak he'd failed to be bested, he was understandably confused.

"Uh... I don't need them" was the silent reply to Mac's question.

Mac looked at his opponent. This was by far the weirdest opponent he'd actually ever played. For starters, it wasn't human (although he had suspected that quite a few of his online opponents weren't human). He didn't know 'what' it was either. He'd say it was some kind of bird, except for the fact that (as far as he knew), birds didn't understand English This 'bird' couldn't speak either, not properly. But it was able to do a thing it called 'telepathy', which it said projected thoughts into the mind of the person it is 'speaking' to. Which was majorly wierd.

And if it WAS a bird, which he was increasingly suspecting it wasn't, it's a VERY big bird.

The living room they were sitting was normally quite sizable. You could fit 4 people in front of the TV and have an online deathmatch no problem, as well as space behind for spectators or parents. But with this opponent, there was enough room for Mac and 'it', and nothing else. Not even a packet of Doritos.

Mac continued to stare at the bird. It had wings that were about 0.8 meters long each, in a very pointy triangle shape, with two much smaller triangles sticking out towards it's back near the ends. The wings jutted out from the top of the thing's body, which was about half a meter wide all the way round. Just after the wings, the front of it tapered down to a long thin neck, which ended in a pointed head. The head was a pointed oval shape, on the top a set of yellow eyes either side. Two ears pointed upwards either side just behind its eyes. The most intimidating feature was the things mouth, which had an array of super sharp teeth on the top and bottom. The 'thing' wasn't showing them right now though. The bottom of it's head where the mouth was was resting on the top of the pillows it was lying on.

The whole thing was covered in feathers, though you'd only notice the fact they were feathers close up. They formed an interesting pattern: The wings were deep red, the front of the body was white but the back and chest was red, the two separated by a series of smooth lines. The neck and head were mostly white, except for an oval of red (with a white oval in the middle of it) on it's head, near the eyes.

On its red chest that it was currently laying on, there was a blue triangle with rounded edges.

"Ugh, I'm NOT a bird" the thing projected into Mac's head.

"Birds flap their wings to fly, and does it look like I do that?"

Mac shook his head like he was a dog with wet hair trying to dry itself. Only Mac was a human, with confusing thoughts, trying to clear them.

He'd dodged around the point long enough, at the end of the day. You didn't steal something entirely new from the MOD, just to play call of duty with it. Although he wasn't quite sure what else he was supposed to do. So he'd given it a controller, laid it down in front of the TV and tried to think what to actually DO with it, while also playing the game. But so far nothing came to mind.

It was time to just ask the thing was it was. Talking to it was awkward: It couldn't speak English out-loud - just make an 'nyu' noise - but it could understand it, even if it did look like it wasn't listening. Mac looked at it's head and spoke. "Right. So if your not a bird, what ARE you? And why were the MOD keeping you locked up?"

The reply was telepathic, and appeared in Mac's head. "Right, finally! I was waiting for you to ask, although I'm surprised you haven't heard of me."

Mac made a 'get on with it' face.

Latias beamed the facts through to Mac's brain.

"I am a Latias. A Latias is a type of dragon. Do you have dragons here?"

Mac nodded. He'd played Skyrim and knew what myths said they were like. Now the 'Latias' mentions it, it does look a bit dragon-ish...

"Good, right. So we're all part of our own set of animals, called Pokemon. You don't seem to have many around here. Okay?"

Mac nodded again.

"So. I am - what the people where I lived called - a legendary pokemon. Normally their are thousands of each pokemon, but because I'm legendary, there is only one of me. I have a longer lifespan than the other pokemon by about 900 years as well."

Mac thought there was only one of it anyway, but if what he was hearing was true, there were more things like it, and thousands of each of those. All existing in a place he'd not ever heard of. Perhaps the thing was brain-damaged, because no way could a place like that be real and Mac not know about it.

"The legend I'm involved in includes my brother, who is a Latios. I'm his sister, and we look almost the same except he's blue where I'm red. We call each other by the name of our species, since there's only one of each of us. So I'm not an 'it', I'm a 'Latias'. And you can call me 'Latias'"

There was a silence while Mac absorbed all the information she was firing at him, a feat equal to that of reconstructing the houses of parliament from a children's drawing. If what she was saying was true, almost everything he knew about the world was wrong. Then again, this thing was beaming thoughts into his head. Not exactly on 'normal earth'. Eventually, he spoke up.

"Oh...Kay..?" Mac said slowly. Apparently the 'Latias' had a gender as well as family, which was a bit weird. And if that was the case...

"But why were the MOD kee-" Mac started, only to be cut off by Latias flying up off the floor and rotating around to face the wall with the sofa next to it, letting out a high pitched cry, closely followed by a psychic translation. "WHAT'S THAT NOISE?".

"What noise? I can't he-"

"Behind the sofa! Squeeking!" Latias replied, as she flew over to the sofa and started trying to wedge her nose (though Mac thought it was more like a snout) behind it, knocking over a few things from the coffee table on the side with it's over sized wings in the process. A glass and coaster went flying, the glass not breaking by the impact with the ground, but the falling coaster landing on it.

"STOP! YOU'RE WREAKING THE HOUSE!"

Latias was too occupied with getting to the squeaking though, and all the time just tried to force her head between the wall and the sofa to separate the two and reach the noise, all the time mumbling in her native tongue. "Squeaking. Got to find it. Find it. Food? Danger? Find it. Find It. Find..."

After watching this for a few seconds, Mac realized that Latias was incapable of moving the sofa from that angle and wasn't going to stop until she's reached whatever she was hearing. Mac walked over to the sofa, and - ducking to avoid Latias' rear end, which had two frantically moving flippers on it - pulled the sofa away from the wall.

With a squeal of triumph, Latias dove behind the sofa. After some thrashing around, she backed away, clutching something in her mouth.

The ceiling was just high enough for Latias to float vertically, chest with the blue triangle forward and facing Mac, though she had to duck slightly. She presented her mouth to Mac, before psychicing a two words across. "Ratatta. Pokemon."

Mac was confused, that wasn't a 'pokemon' as she was calling it. It was just a common rat. "No, not a pokemon. Normal animal. A Mouse."

"No, Ratatta. It's a Pokemon."

Said animal was thrashing about in Latias' mouth, but it only resulted in itself impaling itself on the several rows of teeth. Blood almost as red as Latias' feathers started to leak from the many punctures in its fragile skin. Mac wasn't particularly fazed by this: He used to have cats that would frequently bring in dead/decapitated/limbless-but-alive birds, rabbits and rats.

"Well, it doesn't really matter, does it? It's a snack now." Was Latias' psychic response to Mac, before crunching down on the rodent, stopping it's futile struggles, before chewing twice and swallowing.

Mac was slightly disturbed by this, however. It was the first thing he knew that could speak that ate rats. And those teeth looked incredibly sharp. He made a mental note not to get on Latias' bad side.

There was a moment of awkward silence, penetrated only by the sound of Latias' stomach grumbling as it dissolved the ex-rat's soft tissue and bones.

Latias was still looking at Mac and he felt desperately inclined to say something.

"So you're a carnivore?" He asked. Terrible question, but it broke the silence.

"Does that mean 'eats meat'? Then Yes. But I eat berries and leaves too. I'm hungry. Do you have any?" she asked him, telepathically. She added a head tilt and a smile to this, making her look a lot cuter than the animal killing dragon from a few seconds ago.

"Berries? Er... I think so. Wait here...", and with that Mac fled out of a door and into the kitchen, leaving Latias temporarily unsupervised in the living room.

The house was not as luxurious as her previous house. All the doorways are a lot smaller, the ceiling a lot lower and the rooms more cramped. That said, it was still better than her cell at the Team Rocket HQ, and for that (at least) she was thankful.

That also said, the house was completely unsuited to her. The previous house had dozens of little trinkets which made being a dragon easier. She knew what each thing in the room did.

But here... All sorts of things that were complete unknowns. Right now she was floating horizontally, having just watched Mac leave and go to the kitchen. Mac was very polite, but a bit... weird. Most people who broke into the Team Rocket HQ to rescue a legendary pokemon would do something with it. But so far all he'd done was take her to his house, cover her in a blanket downstairs, before going to sleep for many hours, then playing the game on the TV with her when he got up. No Training. No Battling. He hadn't even captured her - another thing she was glad for.

Mac came back, holding a thin, see-thru plastic tub, piled about half full with a red fruit. Latias hadn't seen the fruit before and zoomed forward for a closer look, startling Mac. She dipped her snout into the box and breathed in, inhaling the smell and all the information that came with it.

It smelled kind-of like a rawst berry, but a lot sweeter. It was fresh, removed from it's source no more than 6 days ago, and kept well in a dry and cold environment the entire time. She couldn't smell anything unusual - defiantly nothing poisonous - aside from a high level of soil, meaning he probably hadn't washed them, but hey, she just ate a Rattata. Soil wasn't going to kill her.

"They're strawberries" Mac said, arms beginning to strain as Latias started pushing against the box with her snout. Latias gave out a kind of positive sounding noise in response. At least, it sounded positive. It was a kind of cooing noise that started low and ended high. He guessed that meant that they were okay. It must have, because the next thing he knew, Latias was munching on the red berries right out of the box.

"L... Latias? Can I put this down somewhere first? It's hurting my arms..." Mac asked.

"Oh, Sure!" Latias replied in her Lati voice which Mac couldn't understand, swooping down back onto the pile of pillows laid out on the floor, facing the TV.

Mac wasn't quite sure what this meant. Did she take his comment as a "No"? Had she changed her mind and wanted to watch TV instead (Did she even know what a TV could do)? Or was she moving to somewhere he could put the strawberries down for her to eat?

He gambled on the latter, placing the box of strawberries down in front of her. The moment he did, she started gorging on the fruit in the box. Because her mouth was on the underside of her snout, she could still look up at him as she ate. She looked at him for a brief few seconds before shutting her eyes and continuing with her snack. Mac didn't know why, but it looked like shutting her eyes while she ate was a habitual thing. She also made a series of cute little noises while she ate as well.

"So... Are they Okay?" Mac asked.

"Mmm... Yeah!". The voice appeared in his head, but Latias was still eating.

"Err... do you want anything to drink? What do you drink anyway?". It would just be his luck if dragons turned out to be high-maintenance.

"Well... The stuff from my kills, or the water from the lake, normally. But the juice in these berries is good too... I'm fine thanks..."

Mac sat on a nearby armchair and watched her eat the strawberries. The music from the game was still going quietly in the background, but it was barely audible over his own thoughts.

His mum was on holiday, but she'd be back in a week. How he explained the presence of the mythical creature in the living room, god only knew. He didn't even begin to think how to persuade her to let him keep her. Latias was quite nice too. Cute. Not attractive, no (something about her appearance made her look a bit... fat). But cute, in the same way a cat playing with some string was cute.

Blatantly, keeping 'her' was not an option. Then again, he didn't really want to see her go. And besides, how would he continue his life knowing that possibly thousands more things like her, these 'pokemon', existed? It FLEW without flapping its wings or anything. How that worked he didn't even-

"It's Psychic" Latias said in in head. He hadn't said anything aloud, so it must have somehow read his thoughts.

"Yes, Being psychic means I can also read your thoughts. So keep them clean". Mac didn't know why, but he had the feeling that she 'said' this with a telepathic smile.

"The reason I can float without moving my wings is because we float using psychic." Latias projected into his thoughts, adding a footnote. "'We' being me and my brother."

Mac was still sat on the armchair. He knew what 'Psychic' was, but had dismissed it as a physical impossibility. There was no way matter could be manipulated by a force generated by neural pathways. But here was this 'thing', projecting thoughts into his head, reading his thoughts and claiming it could levitate with 'psychic'. The only other possible explanation to this actually being real, was that the military successfully captured him and put him on LSD until his eventual death sentence. Or he was going crazy.

The latter was increasingly becoming more likely, as Latias finished the last of the strawberries, and the Xbox controller seemingly lifted itself and flew towards her, stopping just short of what Mac assumed was her snout.

The joysticks appeared to manipulate themselves and started to move around. Latias didn't even blink at this. Mac blinked at least 7 times in under a second.

"That's... That... That's you... Doing that?" Mac just about managed to stammer out-loud.

Latias realized Mac was not used to the whole psychic thing, and stopped her demonstration using the controller. The menu on the screen didn't make sense anyway.

"Well yeah, how do you think I played the game with you in the first place?"

She was right. Mac was pretty stupid not to notice it when they played the game.

"That's what psychic pokemon - me and my brother included - can do. Why?"

Mac got up from his chair. It wasn't the longest thinking session ever. In fact, for the judgment he was about to make, it was bordering on a stupid amount of time to think.

"Right." He stood in front of the TV, demanding Latias' full attention. After this prompt, Latias also got up from the floor and faced him. She still had berry juice and a bit of blood on her feathers around her mouth, but Mac wasn't about to point that out.

"So, You're a 'pokemon', which is essentially an animal. Does that mean you have a certain, like, habitat?" He asked.

Latias nodded her head.

"So surely the best thing to do would be to return you to your habitat? Because from where I am, if you remove something from it's habitat, it can't survive." Mac said matter-of-factly. Latias' response was entirely psychic.

"Well, Actually, I'm very resilient and it'd take extreme cold to kill me. Food isn't really a problem, you know?" Mac nodded. It looked like Latias ate what she wanted, when she wanted and he did not want to become a food source himself. "But I do have someone who normally looks after me, like a carer. And my brother. I was waiting for you to ask, really. I want to go back to them". Her voice in his head sounded longing.

Mac nearly exploded, after he got his head around what Latias just said. "YOU HAVE AN OWNER!?". If she did have an owner, he would HAVE to return her. But on the other hand, she didn't seem to be like some kind of pet, or indeed the kind of thing that would allow itself to be kept as a pet. And a brother too! She'd said that before, but she had an owner that looked after both? Family..?

"Not so loud, I have very sensitive ears!". Mac rolled his eyes. "And yes. I have a kind-of owner. Her name is Bianca, and she's a human, like you. She looks after us: makes sure we get enough food, that kind of thing. But we're not like pets or anything. She lets us do whatever: we could leave if we wanted to. But she's so nice we stay."

Mac thought about this: Latias was obviously of some value. Otherwise why were the military after her? And she obviously had a tight bond with her owner. The reward for returning her could be very handsome. Giving her back to the military, on the other hand, would be suicide - they would just kill him for stealing her in the first place. He knew too much (yet understood so little. How poetic.) And her owner was Human! So humans have known about her existence!

Latias must have been reading his thoughts yet again.

"Look. Mac?". Mac nodded. "I don't understand all of this. But people here want you dead, right? You rescued me from Team Rocket, so in return, I'll rescue you from whoever wants to kill you. If you help me back to my home, I'll make sure you can stay. Bianca won't mind. I'm pretty sure my brother would be grateful too."

Latias was floating there, unchanged. Mac, on the other hand was shivering. He had so many decisions to make, it was affecting his brain and he couldn't hold still. Like the ultimate sugar rush.

The silence lasted too long. Mac had to say something, but he couldn't decide on weather he was going to stay/go with Latias just yet.

"Where do you even live? Where is your owner? Could you show me on a map?" He asked aloud.

Latias replied instantly. "Me and my brother live in a secret garden in a town called alto-mare, which is also an island. Surely you've heard of it? It's old, and has canals instead of streets. There are boat races, a few museums? It has streets, actually but not many. People get around by boat because it's made up of loads of islands connected by small canals? It's called al-"

"That's VENICE!" Mac cried. He'd never been, but his dad had once. Although he'd never mentioned pokemon or legendarily or a secret garden.

Latias watched as Mac ran out of the room, sprouting some nonsense about a place called Venice. She hoped this person could help her get home. She realized she missed Bianca. And her brother. So much. The new stuff in this place was a distraction initially, but now she thought about it... She missed them all...

It'd had been about a week since she'd seen either of them - not an extended amount of time. But she was in an unknown place, with no other pokemon to talk to, and she didn't know the way home. For some reason, she couldn't connect with Latios. Perhaps they were too far apart. Or perhaps something bad had happened to him.

Latias hoped they were okay.

Perhaps Latios was looking for her even now.

Mac rushed back in the room, holding a large folded piece of paper with "ATLAS" written across the side Latias assumed was the front. She had to admit, it looked like she was in capable hands.

"You are from earth, right?" Mac asked. Hoped. If she wasn't, they were sunk. He could hardly present something he'd stolen from the military to NASA for them to send into space at great cost. No, they'd just dissect her. Mac shuddered at the thought and was glad when Latias gave a positive sounding coo and a nod of her head.

Mac indicated to Latias the atlas. "This is a map of earth. Do you know what your country looks like?"

Another nod from Latias.

"Good." Mac laid the folded piece of paper out on the floor, before unfolding it, revealing a map that was 2 meters by 3, with all the countries in the world mapped out, labeled and colored. Major rivers were in blue, as well as the entire sea.

Mac leaned across the map, zooming in on a place near Italy, as Latias flew above him to get a better look.

"Does your country look like this?" Mac asked as he pointed to a little island called venice, hoping that the answer would be yes.

Latias gave a disappointed kind of sound. "No. Definitely not what any part of home looked like." Mac frowned. This was going to be more difficult than expected.

"Actually..This doesn't look like what I've been shown earth is like at all."

Mac nearly sobbed. If she wasn't from this earth, he was as good as dead. But she must be: she can understand English, and her owner was a human! But where on earth - quite literally - was she from?

He looked at the next possible location, which was really the only possible one where something like Latias could exist without him knowing.

The place printed on the side of the truck. The place that was apparently wiped out after some sort of biological incident. He scanned across the map to look at the place that he knew would be replaced with "N. KOREA" in white, with a black splodge where the country should be. Sure enough, a large black box was covering a large section of the map just below China. He looked across to the info panel.

"IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE QUARANTINE LAW 1502, THIS COUNTRY HAS BEEN OMITTED. FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES, THIS COUNTRY DOES NOT EXIST." Was the only advice the info panel gave. Mac had learnt about the Biological Mutation Quarantine law (or the 'BMQ') in history. Almost 500 years ago, there was an international incident, and, long story short, all information in and out of the country was blocked, due to some kind of super-virus. The place was declared a wasteland and generally forgotten about. People couldn't get in or out, removed from history, and anyone trying to find anything out about it was killed, apparently not only the Chinese government, but also some force inside the country.

But it was the only place Latias could have come from. A thought occurred to Mac. What if this country, North Korea, had tonnes of pokemon? But then a virus came about and started killing them off, so they banned everything coming in or out, stopping the virus getting to any more 'pokemon' there? It was a long shot, a leap of imagination. But it was the only thing he had.

Latias stepped into help. "Er... this may be useful... The province Alto Mare belongs to is called Hoenn?"

Mac shot up. Hoenn? HOENN!? He dug frantically into his pocket, pulling out a moderaty high tech phone. He opened up google and typed out a search as fast as he could without making a mistake. "HOENN BMQ".

The moment the page loaded, he clicked on the Wikipedia link and scanned down the first chaper, the summery.

"...lished by the North Korean government, in the capital province of Hoenn, in response to a still unknown medical threat on their population..."

He was shivering again. If the two Hoenns were the same, he had not just only found out where Latias was from, but also what the Quarantine law was hiding.

He ran another search, this time for "Hoenn" on Google maps. Only one result was found, and it was posted in the centre of the black box that represented North Korea. The info box just gave the same information on the establishment of quarantine law as Wikipedia.

Only one Hoenn on earth. And Latias was from it. He could take her back home. He could live there, with her, and her owner, and all the other 'pokemon'. He could actually leave.

He had no idea how to get into this place, this country that had been isolated and cordoned off nearly 500 years ago. But if he could: No one would be after him. He would be a hero for returning a 'legendary'. He could start over again. The thourght was ever so tempting.

But it would mean leaving all his family and friends behind...

He dodged around the issue again, it was starting to become a habit of his. He turned around to look Latias in the eyes from no more than 20cm away. He was startled by how close she was without him hearing, but recovered quickly.

"Okay. I know what country you're from now. Once we get in there, do you think you could find your way home? I don't have any maps of that place here."

Latias thought for a second before replying. "Erm... Yeah, I suppose, if we manage to sneak into a pokemon centre and get a map which tells us where we are in relation to where Alto Mare is..."

Mac was concerned about the way she thought "sneak". And confused about what a 'pokemon centre' was. Could you buy them?

"Why do we have to sneak in? Can't we just ask for one?"

Latias returned him a look of shock. "No! Well, I can't. You can, I suppose. But I've not been captured, and I'm legendary. So if I was there we'd be surrounded by eager trainers in no time!" her voice said in his head, sounding slightly indignant.

"Wait! Captured? Trainers? What?" Mac asked, a look of confusion on his face.

Latias realized it was going to be difficult to explain to him, as he apparently knew nothing about pokemon. It WAS a strange place she'd ended up in...

"Right. Wild pokemon are pokemon that haven't been captured. Being captured means that the person who captures you - the trainer - is your master and you must obay them, weather they use you in fights or not".

Latias detected the jolt of surprise from Mac and explained, as he probably would be shocked by the prospect of humans encouraging animals to fight. Or at least, in his world. "Yes, Trainers fight their pokemon against each other. We enjoy it, so it's okay, but since I'm a legendary I want to stay free to do as I wish. Understand?"

Mac gave a nod, though it was obvious he didn't fully understand. He'd find out in due coarse though, Latias suspected.

Just as Mac was thinking how they were actually going to get to Korea, Latias flew back from the map and shrieked. "The door! people! Coming in the house!"

Mac hesitated - what was she on about? Latias heard his thoughts and explained telepathically.

"Someone is opening the front door! They feel bad!". Mac realized almost too late, and thought for a few milliseconds before running into the hallway.

It couldn't be his mum, she was a hundred miles away. All his friends would have knocked first. The same went for his dad. 'They feel bad'?

He opened the door into the hallway and looked towards the doorway.

Stood there were 3 men, all in black combat gear. They had pistols in holsters around their belts, and the two at the back were cradling guns Mac recognized as standard British Special Forces MP5s with flashlight attachment, metal sight and rubber grip. They were also wearing helmets with flip-down visors, but they were up at the moment. They had bullet proof vests on and radios on the straps, and all looked like they were straight out of the movies.

The lead one spotted Mac and drew his pistol and aimed it at Mac almost so fast that he didn't see him do it. "STAY WHERE YOU ARE."

Mac realized who they were with a sickening feeling. Military Police. After Latias.

* * *

Firstly, okay, yeah, I know that Hoenn is actually in Japan, but bear with me, pretend_ that_ Hoenn doesn't exist. The plot makes much more sense if you ignore that fact.

What did you think? Read and review!


	2. Chapter 2

Confused about what's going on? You would be if you ended up on the other side of the world! Stay tuned, all gets explained in a progressive and interesting manner.

Also, shout out to Farla: She's not afraid to say what's on her mind. Or copy-and-paste document. Either way, I want more of you like her. Not exactly like, She could do with being a 'tad' less scripted, but I want YOU to point out flaws and notify me of them. Although you don't have to make a list if it's not convenient.

* * *

The lead soldier started stepping towards him, gun drawn the entire time. "BACK SLOWLY INTO THE ROOM YOU JUST LEFT. PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD! NO SUDDEN MOVEMENTS OR I WILL SHOOT." He bellowed at Mac, who was in no position to argue. Mac placed his hands on his head as slowly as he dared and started to reverse into the room with Latias in it.

Mac realized it was all over, and all so soon. The military had arrived so quickly he hadn't had time to plan what to do if they turned up or anything...

Latias, the thing he'd stolen from them, was in the room they were taking him into. The moment they saw her, they'd shoot him and most likely her too. He walked as slow as he could, trying to think of a way, any way, he could get out of this. How did they know it was him who'd taken her anyway? How did they know to come to his house?

The lead man kept Mac in his sights the entire time. This was the 12th house his team had inspected so far. They'd been told to look for 'abnormalities', but not what kind. He'd would have assumed it was drugs or illegal immigrants or something, except when he'd asked what they were supposed to be looking for, all his commander had said was that the information was classified (information above their pay grade, they only would find out when they found it), and that it was some sort of military property that had been stolen, quite large and obvious and apparently very dangerous.

Hence why he was pointing the gun at the house's seemingly only resident. If this stolen military property was as dangerous as it sounded, he didn't want it pointed at him, or any member of his team.

While he backed the youngster into the living room, one of the other soldiers destroyed the land-line phone socket with his boot. They didn't want word getting out about the checks. If it did their cover would be blown, the thief would destroy the stolen item and the whole operation would be pointless. They'd already arranged an 'accident' to happen to the village's only mobile phone tower. So no one could call anyone via that either. And anyone trying to leave by any of the village's four roads out would be met by several well placed car-crashes blocking the road. Nothing was getting in or out, unless it was in an armored truck.

As Mac entered the living room, he noticed 2 things. One, Latias and the map had seemingly vanished into thin air. And Two, a girl was stood next to the TV, looking somewhat stunned by the armed men forcing Mac back into the living room. She was wearing a white skirt, turquoise blouse, and her hair was styled exactly like... Latias'... Wings...

Mac felt slightly relived in his thoughts as he realized that Latias had, somehow, managed to make herself look like a human. Quite how he wasn't sure, but she had and - for the moment - the military men wouldn't find her and he wasn't going to be shot.

The moment the leader saw the girl, he bellowed at her and Mac flinched, startled by the outburst. "HANDS ON YOUR HEAD! NOW! HANDS. ON. HEAD!" Latias did as she was told as the second soldier pointed his rifle at her, and gestured for her to stand near Mac, away from the television. Latias wasn't unduly concerned about the gun facing in her direction, she could throw up a protect to block the bullets, should they fire. But then they'd know what she was and send everyone against her, which would be too much.

The leader relaxed a bit. The pair looked too young to be criminal masterminds. All the same, he had to follow a procedure, the same one the other 30 teams had been given. He spoke to the two of them with a calmer voice as they were shepherded together by the other two men.

"Sorry about this, but we're conducting checks for possible illegal substances." - The lie he was told to use by his commander. "I'm going to need you two to lie flat on the floor and tell us who you are and where your proof of identity documents are."

Mac paused for a second to digest what he was hearing. They didn't know who he was, then. He didn't believe the story about looking for drugs, that was obviously just a cover up, the military police don't do drugs checks. But they were looking for something. The fact that they didn't question Latias' presence meant that they weren't sure 100% what they were looking for as well. Information above their pay grade. So there was no harm in letting them know who he was, so long as he could somehow fake Latias' identity.

"Mac Simmons, 17, Papers are in the white box on the desk in the master bedroom. Homeowner is my mum, on holiday in Cornwall. Details in the same place as the ID documents." He said in the calmest voice he could, before he got down on his knees and laid flat on the floor, hands still on his head. One of the soldiers left and went up the main stairs, mac assumed it was to look for his ID documents. Mac suddenly realized with a shock that they were now going to ask Latias. Could speak in her human form?

Latias was stuck. She couldn't - in fact - talk in her human form, and she needed to respond sooner or later or they'd figure her out. Latios would know what to do, but he wasn't here to help. She could attack them, but she'd need to shift into her true form before she could use any of her attacking moves, and they'd shoot her the moment she started glowing prior to the transformation, and she couldnt use protect whilst transforming, it took too much psychic power. Despite a brain with the power of 10 super computers, Latias couldnt think of a solution. The leader turned to look at her. He gave her a few seconds before asking again. "And you? Name? Are your papers in the same place as his?"

Latias needed help. She telepathed Mac. "I can't speak, Mac. Tell them!"

Mac got this and came up with the most convincing lie he could on the spot. He spoke Into the floor due to the fact that he was lying down, but the lead soldier heard him. "She's a mute. She can't speak."

Silence followed.

The lead soldier was confused. He'd never met a mute before, but he was pretty sure they existed. This was an annomily though, which WAS what they were looking for. He allowed some menace to creep into his voice as he spoke again, this time at Mac.

"And where are her papers certifying this?"

Latias realized that they didn't have papers the police wanted, and hatched a plan. She beamed a thought to Mac. "Tell him they are in my blouse pocket"

Mac got this and relayed it to the soldier, adding uncertainty to make it seem more believable. "I think they're in her blouse pocket."

The man felt uneasy. Call it gut instinct, but something just didn't appear right with this whole situation. It wasn't just the fact that this all seemed very... eerie. The two young adults had accepted the fact that they had a gun pointing at them with what was almost indifference. Like it was all some sort of evil plan. The background music to the game was still playing in the background, and it only added to the drama of the situation. He also wasn't happy with the idea of going into a girl's pockets so close to her... chest. She only looked 14, and he was 35. While it was unlikely that she'd file for harassment, his colleagues would take the piss out of him for ages afterwards.

"Miss? If you wouldn't mind passing me your papers please? You may take your hands off your head for the moment."

Latias took her imitation human hands off her head and reached into the breast pocket of her blouse, pulling out something that looked very like an official watermarked piece of paper but was actually something she'd just shape-shifted to include.

She held out the faux paper for inspection, hoping that the soldier wouldn't try and take it off her, as it was a part of her and he'd find it impossible to do so. The soldier leaned in and looked at it, reading it out-loud for the sake of everyone hearing.

"CERTIFICATE OF MEDICAL MUTISM: blah blah D.O.B 18-02-97 blah, unable to verbally communicate, blah blah, certifies Tia Sharp, blah blah, signed and dated..."

Since the soldier had never seen a 'certificate of muteism' before, there was no way to check it it was legit. It certainly looked official though, fancy paper, a stamp and everything. And besides, she was only a small schoolgirl. Weird looking, sure (How did her hair keep that strange shape?) But a criminal mastermind capable of stealing a weapon from a top secret military base? No.

"Thank you, you can put it away now. Please lie on the floor with your hands on your head like the boy. He can answer all your questions from now on". Latias nodded and copied Mac.

On the floor, Mac heaved a sigh of relief. They actually thought that Latias was a human! He wasn't sure how Latias had managed to convince them she was a mute, as he was facing the floor for the entire incident. Perhaps she psychiced them and made the illusion of some paper. Anyway, all he needed to do now was tell the truth about himself and make up some convincing stuff for Latias, and they'd be none the wiser and would hopefully leave without shooting him!

"So then, Boy." The leader said to him, all the time keeping the pistol aimed at Mac's head, more for intimidating effect than anything else. "I take it this young lady is your..." He let his sentence hang in the air, prompting Mac to finish it.

He couldn't say she was a blood relative there wasn't a mute in his family and they'd know he was lying. He had to think quick, so he blurted out the first thing that came into his head.

"Girlfriend. She is my girlfriend."

Latias' voice appeared in his head, with a sarcastic ring to it "Nice going, Genius. In case you forgot, the papers said your girlfriend's name was Tia Sharp and she was born on the 18th of February. And I'm 15. Make the rest up."

The soldier huffed, clearly not impressed with the 2 year age gap. She was 15, according to the certificate, and he was 17. The wrong side of the age barrier in his opinion, but he wasn't here to investigate that kind of thing, and let it drop.

"And where does she live?" He asked as the other soldier re-entered the room, holding a British passport. Mac's passport.

"Maltby, McKenzie's estate" Mac replied, actually reciting the location of his piano teachers house. By the time they'd get round to searching that estate, Latias would be long gone.

The soldier didn't question the location further but made a mental note to check for mutes in the Maltby area. "I see. Please stay still while we search your house. Do not move."

With that, the other 2 soldiers left the room, and started checking through the other rooms. They didn't know exactly what they were looking for, but since it was supposedly a big obvious thing, they only needed to glance in each room to confirm it wasn't there and to check for secret rooms where it could be hidden. After looking everywhere including the garden shed, the job was done in 3 minutes.

They returned into the living room and gave the verdict. "Negative for this one."

Mac would have cheered if it wouldn't have given the game away.

The lead soldier told them to stand up. Mac's hands were still on his head, but the leader told him he could put them down as he gave him his passport back. Mac took it from him and thanked him.

"Don't leave this house for the rest of the day." The soldier said as he turned around and left the living room. A few seconds later, the front door made a slamming noise. They had left.

"That. Was too close." Mac said, before laughing with relief. Latias started glowing blue and resumed her normal form.

Mac saw her do it but didn't ask any questions. He was beyond being shocked by the things she could do. If she suddenly was able to become invisible, or breathe fire, he wouldn't be surprised.

When Latias had finished her transformation, she flew around to face Mac and, whilst cooing happily, rubbed her face against his cheek. Mac thourght it was exceptionally soft, and guessed it was some kind of thankful gesture.

"Thanks for hiding me Mac! I knew you wouldn't give me up!" She telepathed across to him.

Mac was about to fall over, she was applying quite a lot of force in her bid to be affectionate. "No problem. Oh by the way, that name you made up... Tia? It means grandmother in spanish" He took a step back before he lost his balance completely, and Latias stopped rubbing his cheek, somewhat confused about the random fact about the nickname Bianca sometimes called her. Tia. Sounded like La'tia's, also meant wise and old motherly figure in Spanish. Huh, interesting.

Mac spoke up again "Now, I'm going for a shower. After that, we're going to figure out how I'm going to get you home, okay?". Latias gave a curt little nod, though inside the thought of seeing her brother and Bianca again made her almost burst with excitement.

As Mac left the room, he gave Latias a few instructions. "Erm... You can lie down or have a rest or something in here. If you can figure out how to, you can play on the Xbox. There's also some meat out on the side of you want it, though feel free to have any mice you see running around. Just don't tear up the place while I'm in the shower. If anyone else arrives, fly up and knock on - Well, headbutt the bathroom door loudly 3 times, okay?"

Latias gave a positive coo as he left the room, leaving the door open so she could fly through with ease if she wanted. A few seconds later the sound of him bounding up the stairs reached her super sensitive ears. After that, almost silence, except from the music on the television. A brief flash of psychic power and the TV was switched off, the power button having being pressed by a psychic hand.

The prospect of meat was enticing to Latias. She wondered what kind as she floated through the narrow doorway, following the smell of protein As she went, she sung a small song to herself, one Bianca would hum whilst doing housework, but sounded equally good in Lati. "But you didn't have to thunder bolt, now your just a pichu that I used to know". Did this new world even have music like that?

The smell led her through another door and into a room that looked like a kitchen, with a sink and a cooker and all other kinds of foody stuff. On the side to her right was some kind of cooked meat, she could tell by the stunted smell it had had some of the goodness heated out of it. But meat was meat, and she was quite hungry. She hovered over and lowered herself down so she could eat...

In the bathroom, Mac was washing his hair, and contemplating what he was going to actually do.

The shower was a good place for thinking. As a child, he had had ADHD and hand found concentrating on one thing for any length of time difficult, so his parents had adapted the house to be as stimulus and distraction free as possible. When he grew up they had remodeled but the bathroom had stayed as plain as possible. White walls. White sink. White towel. White cabinet. White bath, with just water in it. Plain white shower curtain. As distraction free as possible. The perfect place to just stop and think.

Which was exactly what Mac did.

Latias could fly, and looked quite strong. He supposed he could fly on her back. But it would have to be low altitude to stop him from suffocating. And it was a long distance to get to Korea. He was pretty certain she wouldn't be able to fly that far in one stretch You could take a plane from Heathrow to Hong Kong. Then she could fly over to Korea. That would shave a lot off the total flight for Latias...

But did he really want to go? He was pretty sure he could get Latias there. But getting himself out on his own would he difficult, perhaps even impossible. He would never return home and see any of his friends, or his family again. Then again, Latias wouldn't be able to make it without him. She didn't know anything about geography. Or even how to board a plane, for that matter. The risk of her being captured whilst going alone were a lot greater than if he was with her.

Then again, he was wanted. Would be wanted once they'd done a full DNA scan on the facility and found his. They would kill him. Or lock him up for so long he would wish he was dead. England had outlawed capital punishment, but 'accidents' happen...

Downstairs, Latias had finished the plate of meat. It tasted very much like Mareep, but not quite. As she looked up, she realized how... Empty the house was. It had all the family touches: a calender on the wall, a few fridge magnets, that kind of thing. It just lacked that vibe that Latias normally was able to detect. This house felt more like a medical facility then a home.

She didn't want to be alone in the house. Her brother had spoken to her about her being childish, still a baby. She certainly felt it now. She felt frightened by the clinicalness of the house, the lack of an aura.

She couldn't take it anymore, and decided to wait outside the bathroom door for Mac. He made the house feel more homely.

She flew out of the kitchen, accelerated rapidly down the hallway and turned on the spot so she was facing up the stairs, before jetting up them quickly. She didn't know why, but it felt like something was chasing her up them. But nothing was.

Once she reached the landing, she surveyed the surroundings. Mac would be in the hottest room unless he was a fan of cold showers. She turned left and with her heat sensitive eyes noticed the room that was a good 3 degrees warmer than the others. The one where the shower was running and a light sprinkling noise was coming from. Duh.

While she originally intended to wait at the foot of the door, she noticed that even if she curled up as much as possible, her wings would make it difficult to stay there. Obviously, she would have to wait for him elsewhere...

In the shower, Mac was still considering his options. He'd just run some conditioner through his blonde hair, and was trying his best to keep it out of his eyes, lest it reach them and sting intensely.

How would he tell his mum? How would she believe him? Would she go to the police? How should he word the letter he would have to leave her?

They needed to leave soon, that was for sure. In the next day, before the military got the DNA checks through, or he was found out some other way. He'd got £1000 stashed away, enough for a flight to Hong Kong and some food. It would have to be enough. A breif blast of cold air came from around the edge of the shower curtain, but Mac shrugged it off, enveloped in his own thoughts Even if he got the tickets, how was Latias meant to get on the plane? She couldn't go in human form, she didn't have a passport. She couldn't go in pokemon form because she wouldn't even fit in the cabin of the plane, never mind the fact that people would question the existence of a mythical dragon on the HK846 flight.

Eventually, though, he'd got his plan worked out. After a good 20 minutes in the shower, he'd worked out the best way he could go about returning Latias and starting his new life. It wasn't 100% guaranteed success, there was plenty of opportunity for capture by the authorities. But it was the best plan he had.

He shut off the water and waited a few seconds to let the residual drops drip off him, before drawing the shower curtain back and catching a glimpse of the steamy room. He liked his showers piping hot, and the amount of steam was so great that he could barely see the opposite wall.

As he climbed out of the shower, his foot hit a fluffy object a few centimeters higher than where the thought the towel mat was.

Latias was woken by something crushing her neck. Instinctively, she threw her head back to dislodge the thing crushing her, before flying round to face it and screaming as loud as she could to intimidate it and stop it from attacking her again. Instead of backing off like most things would though, it screamed back, in a much deeper voice than she expected. With a shock she realized it was Mac.

Latias moving had thrown Mac's foot backwards, sending him overbalanced and his head straight towards the hard tile wall. When he hit it, Mac thought his head would split open. The second impact with the edge of the bath would probably be lethal, and split open the existing crack like an egg, spilling his brains out like the yolk.

Mac braced himself for his collision with the wall, screwing his eyes up and clenching his jaw, but it never came. He could still feel himself suspended in the air though, so he must still be falling. Last time he checked, the laws of gravity still applied to him. But this fall was taking exceptionally long.

After 3 seconds, Mac opened his eyes. He was indeed still suspended in mid air. He was facing upwards, looking at the shower head. The tile wall was a few millimeters from his head, but not touching it. The bizarre thing was that his legs weren't supporting him. He was just floating there.

A glace to the other side of the room revealed what was happening. Latias was looking right at him, and Mac was embarrassed as she was apparently female and he was completely naked. But he remembered the Latias was able to make things float, which must be what she was doing now, but with him.

Mac felt himself move towards Latias and out of the area above the bath. He really desperately wanted to cover himself, but for some reason his arms wouldn't work. Latias and her psychic, he guessed.

Latias psychically hovered Mac over the towel mat, before gently lowering him until his bare bottom was on the surface. She released her grip on him and his joints slumped, his head lightly bumping the plastic bath tub as they did.

In the milliseconds it took for Mac to realize his joints would move again, he reached an arm out and snatched a towel from the edge of the washing basket, using it to cover his privates.

Latias wasn't quite sure why. She saw her own brother naked pretty much every day, and Bianca didn't mind if Latias slept in the same room she was having a shower in. Latias liked sleeping in the same room as a shower - it was always warm, the steam gave the whole thing a dreamy quality and the noise was the perfect sound track for drifting off.

Mac stared at Latias, unmoving. He really wished she'd move elsewhere so he could dry himself off. "Latias... A little privacy?" He asked, trying to stay polite as he could.

Latias just looked confused. "Why? You've been looking at me naked since we first met."

Mac would have facepalmed if his hand wasn't holding his towel. "Yeah, it's different though. I normally wear clothes, you don't. And your... bits... aren't as obvious."

Latias remained confused. "And? Are you saying I might be attracted to you? Ha. No. Compared to my brother, you're the weedyist thing I could choose as a mate. He's much more powerful than you. And bigger. Much bigger"

Even though she hadn't said anything out-loud Mac felt that what she just said was said with an unmistakable smirk. Then he figured out what she had actually just said.

"Wait! You and your brother...?!"

Latias realized she probably shouldn't have mentioned the whole relationship between her and Latios to this adolescent Bianca giggled about it enough already. She didn't need this teen to start looking at her like that too.

"No. We're not mates. Yet. Actually... Well... Perhaps... Since we're the only pair of latis in existence... Well... Yeah... What does it matter anyway? We're animals just like anything else. It's about survival, at the end of the day. That's what hormones are for, right?"

Mac knew she was right, but the causality with which Latias explained her situation was still... Creepy. And if she was meant to live for hundreds of years, it was possible that she hadn't reached the part of her life cycle with all the hormones and that stuff that gave way to those... urges.

Mac tried to put that mental image out of his mind, and shook his head to help clear it, spraying water from his hair in the process, a bit hitting Latias.

Latias didn't give it away, but she'd detected Mac's corrupt thoughts about her and Latios. He was just a teenager after all. They couldn't control what their brains were programmed to think. She just giggled playfully when the few droplets from Mac's hair splattered her snout. She changed the subject for the sake of both of them.

"Can I stay here if I face the wall? I like warm places and this is the warmest room in the house right now."

Mac considered this. On one hand, she was right. It was winter outside, and the chill transferred itself indoors in most of the rooms. The shower had warmed the bathroom into comparatively toasty temperatures. And Latias clearly felt uncomfortable on her own. On the other hand, he'd be naked in the same room as a female, even if it wasn't from the same species. Mac had not been in that situation before.

Mac let that slide. "Fine then. Just face the wall."

Latias did as she was told, lying back down on the floor but this time against the wall and facing it. Because her wings would collide with the wall if she folded them down, she set them back in a v shape.

"Okay? Just don't tread on my wings, please?" She beamed across to Mac, who responded with an uneasy "that's fine" before standing up - watching he didn't trample either of her red wings - and turning to face away from her, the towel covering him the entire time.

As he started to uneasily dry himself off, Latias voice appeared in his head. "So how are we getting out?". Mac started to explain outloud, but Latias interrupted him.

"Well, If you can manage flying to London, w-"

"Er... instead of explaining outloud, just think of your plan, and I'll read your mind. That'll be way faster."

Mac nodded even though Latias wasn't looking at him. "Well okay. If you think that'll work". He began to think his plan through, start to finish.

As soon as he finished, Latias' voice appeared in his head. "Good idea. But would I make it simpler if I said I could turn invisible?"

Mac was born a skeptic But if his recent experience had taught him anything, it was that the impossible was anything but. All the same, he didn't believe her. Invisibility didn't actually break any laws of physics, but the losses incurred and power required made it ridiculously impractical. So if this dragon could turn invisible, he wanted to see it. Not see it. See him not seeing it.

He covered his mid-section with the towel yet again and turned to look at Latias, who was still faithfully facing the wall with her eyes shut. "Really? Your not kidding? Not that I don't believe you, but prove it!"

A second after he said that, Latias just 'disappeared'. No flash of light to accompany this like there was with when she transformed into the girl. One moment the dragon was there, the next, he saw only the wall. Like Latias wasn't there.

"Wow." Mac said. He was so amazed, he couldn't insert any emotion into his voice. No wonder the military were keeping her hidden...

Without warning, Latias reappeared, in the exact same location she'd dissapeard from. "See? Or rather, not?". Latias made a noise that sounded like a giggle. "Will that make your plan easier?"

Mac knew it would make his plan a lot, lot easier. There wouldn't have to be any risky evading customs or security, if she could fly over them invisibly in broad daylight.

"Yes, it will..."

"Great! Well then... When do we leave?"

"In about, oh I don't know... 4 Hours?"

* * *

Well... Awkward moment there then, eh? Even more Awkward for me, writing about the mating thing on the train with some woman staring at my laptop. "No, madam, I am not a furry. In fact, I myself am asexual and not attracted in any way to any gender, so if you could kindly take your prejudice opinion so the adjacent seat, it would be much appreciated"... The hings I want to say, but can't... ahh well.

Read and Review! What do you think so far?


	3. Chapter 3

"_Dear Mum..._

_You've probably noticed I'm not at home. Don't worry, I'm safe._

_But - I'm sorry - I've messed up really quite badly. I've had to run far away as possible from this place. Once you get back, I want you to file a missing persons report for me. Say you last saw me in this house before you left, but I'd gone to stay with friends up north in newcastle. If - this is important - the army come round, or some men in suits, or anyone like that, you know nothing about what I've done or where I've gone. The last you heard from me will be the text I sent on Friday. Once you've read this letter, I want you to burn it, and the attached pictures._

_Well then. That's out of the way. I should probably explain..._

_The printing press near the mine dump isn't just a printing press. It also hides a military research lab. While you were gone, I broke in and stole something. I thourght it would be some kind of dangerous explosive thing._

_It wasn't. It was a live specimen. An animal._

_It's intelligent, at first I thourght it was some kind of bird. But It can speak. This may sound crazy too, but it can use telepathy, or telekinesis, or whatever it is. Move stuff with its thourghts. Mind read. If you think this is crazy, I agree with you. It is. I've attached some pictures of the animal (its called a 'Latias' and it's some kind of dragon) in the likely event you don't believe me._

_She (it's female, apparently) has told me that the government has kidnapped her and that she has an owner. On the other side of the world. So I'm doing the right thing and taking her back._

_It may be a one way journey though. I'll be fine, PLEASE don't worry. But the place I'm going... There may be no way out. Even if their was, the government here isn't happy with me. They'd probably kill me. Latias has promised me that I'll be looked after when I safely return her. So, all in all, it's for the best._

_I'm sorry. You always said I should move out and make my own way. I guess I've finally done it, even if this isn't the way we'd planned. Ah well..._

_If I don't see you again: You were a brilliant mother and an even better friend. I love you._"

Mac folded up the letter and pictures and put it inside a tub of butter in the fridge. If police searched the house, they'd be unlikely to check the fridge, and even if they did, not the tub of butter. His mother, on the other hand, would make herself toast when she got in, and open the butter so she could butter the toast, finding the letter.

Mac realized he was crying. This would be his last time in the house he'd lived 18 years in. End of the line. After that, all gone...

He walked through to the study. In it was a computer. He pried open the side of it and located the hard drive, ripping it out and stamping on it with his foot until it made the crunching noise of the interior disk breaking.

No more evidence. They wouldn't be able to touch his family without evidence of the break-in, all of which was on the drive he just destroyed.

Mac walked out of the study and closed the door, the thud sounding hollow in the house.

He didn't want to leave. But there was no other option.

"Do you want cheering up?". A voice in his head. Latias.

"Er... Yes." He said outloud.

Latias hovered in from the kitchen.

"You are doing the best thing I have ever seen a human do. You are the bravest and most coragous person of them all. You are amazing"

To Mac, he didn't feel much better, not at all. It was not so much that he didn't think he was doing the right thing, he knew he was. But no matter how good he was, he was still leaving 18 years of memories behind. But latias looked so hopeful, he couldn't help but smile.

"Let's do this". Mac grabbed his pre-prepared bag off the floor. It had money, a passport, some food and a few of Mac's little gadgets that he suspected might be useful in it: Some gadgets and trinkets from his work, a phone charger, a phone battery, an internet satellite receiver, a photocopy of a 'certificate of mutism' he'd whipped up, a few trinkets he'd stolen from his time in a grenade factory, a laptop, some basic electronics stuff, and a wepon that he'd assured himself was an absolute last resort. The bag wasn't particularly large, but weighed in at over two kilograms.

He went to the front door and locked it (from the inside) for the last time. He was going to miss that sound. Next, he led Latias out through the living room and through the back doors, into the garden. Mac left the house, stepping over the threshold and out into the sun.

Leaving wasn't how he expected it. It should have been cold, and snowing. Or at least raining. Something with a miserable air. It had just gone winter after all.

But no. It was sunny, and the direct heat from the sun was desperately trying to warm Mac's numb feelings as he turned and locked the back door.

Latias thourght he was taking forever to complete this task. She was reading his mood, it was solemn and detached. She, on the other hand, was ecstatic: She was going to fly over this new world and get home to Latios. Possibly before the end of the day!

For the sake of Mac, though, she didn't break out into song. She just did a teensie smile.

Mac turned to see her floating horizontally - as normal - in the middle of the garden. Both his neighbors were on holiday, and the back of the garden was shielded from the public's view by a thick hedge. So it was okay for Latias to be visible. For now.

Eventually, she couldn't take it any longer.

"Come on! We'll miss the flight!"

Mac eventually spoke up, but his voice sounded hollow. Latias expected him to perk up once they were in the air.

"Oh. Yeah, wouldn't want to do that. Er... So... How do you normally fly with humans on your back?"

"I don't" Latias 'said' a bit too hastily. "BUT, when I do, they normally lie flat on their stomach with their arms around my neck. My shoulders will keep you from falling off."

Now that she mentioned it, Mac could see two lumps where her wings joined her body. If he were to name them, he'd call them shoulders, even if her arms were somewhere completely different. But yes, if you laid down there, you wouldn't fall off. Hopefully.

He walked unsteadily up right next to her and she floated lower, to about waist height. He patted her on the head - prompting a coo and a slight head tilt of affection -, simply because he wasn't sure what else to do. She looked very... Unstable in the air, like the slightest weight either side would make her tip over. Obviously, one does not simply climb on t-

"Just climb on already. You can use my paws as a step if you want. You've got arms. Use them."

"O... Okay then..."

Mac grabbed around Latias neck and jumped, pulling himself so he was straddling her neck. He suddenly remebered her teeth, razor sharp. He didn't want to end up accidentally injuring her, otherwise she might do the same to him. Without the 'accidentally' bit.

But she stayed steady, like nothing had even happened. She coo'd happily though when Mac managed to lay down inbetween her wings. She hadn't done this in a long time, and it made her feel like she was taking Bianca for one of her rides around Alto Mare.

"Okay... I'm going to turn invisible now... You can still hold on, but be careful. Also, watch my feathers. The reflective side of them is really delicate."

Mac felt a bristling underneath him and just like that he was no longer looking at Latias' neck. He was now looking at a patch of grass, and, from what he could see, apparently holding on to nothing at all.

"You ready?" The voice in his mind asked.

He didn't ever think he'd be ready for something like this. But he could hardly turn back now. He took one final look at the house. "Yes"

"Okay then. Hold tight"

They both shot off into the air, climbing directly upwards as quickly as possible to avoid Mac being seen by any people below. The last thing they needed was the news helicopter following after them recording the human seemingly flying without aid. Mac had forseen this and was wearing clothing that would disguise him against the sky, but still fit in on land: A blue hoodie, Navy jogging trousers and white sports trainers. But it was still better to get out of sight as quickly as possible.

Latias heard this thoughts and made a casual observation. "You know, the shade of blue you're wearing looks a lot like my brother's."

Mac was too busy holding on for his life. The G-force was mainly over, since Latias wasn't accelerating any more. But the wind against his back was still pushing him up against her feathers, and he was constantly worried of falling as the ground shrunk away from him.

"Don't worry if you fall. I'll catch you... This high enough?" Latias' voice in his head said.

Mac dug out his phone from a zipped up pocket. He pulled up the GPS, and waited a few seconds for it to get a fix. When it did, he scrolled across to the altitude. 1730ft. Plenty high enough. Air still thick enough to be breathable.

"Yeah, it's good." He shouted. The wind up here was fast, and he wanted to make sure he was heard.

Latias became visible again and slowly stopped rising, and Mac could see that she was looking down and around at the ground.

From this height, she could see all the little details Alto Mare didn't have. Her vision had a 20 times higher resolution than a human, so whereas Mac was struggling to pick out houses, Latias could quite easily see cars. There were a lot of them too. Because Alto Mare only had water ways, there were no cars. She'd never left Alto Mare, but Latios had. He said the mainland was too far away for her. He hadn't mentioned or shown her any cars either.

But there were so many here. All gliding along down black or brown pathways, at this altitude making no noise, but tracking smoothly along, all different shapes and sizes. A few even had red and blue lights on. But for now, she had to get them to the airport. And fast. Mac was light for a human, but still heavy. She'd only ever carried Bianca remenial distances. This was a lot further, according to Mac.

"Okay. Which way?" She asked him telepathically.

He shouted his response, but it was quite clear to her sensitive ears. "Turn 120 degrees clockwise... Wait, you're like a bird right? Don't you have an internal compass or something?"

"Duh, yeah?"

"Well then go south. We'll get as far as you can go, and if you're tired we can go to the nearest train station and get the train from there. That Okay?"

Latias nodded. Mac was kind. No pressure. If she couldn't manage, there was a backup plan. But she desperately wanted to get home as quickly as possible. And not disappoint Mac. She turned round and headed in the direction she thourght was south.

On her back, Mac was trying not to slide off. Her turn was quite rapid and he was close to falling off, but he didn't. He risked a look over the side of Latias' neck as she set off, just to check what direction they were going in. Below, the M1 snaked out infront of them, carving a almost direct path to London. They were pretty much parallel with that, so as long as Latias stayed true, they would be there soon.

As luck would have it, there was a tailwind. So whatever speed Latias was going at, the wind hitting the top of Mac's hoodie and trying to pull him off Latias would be 70 MPH less. He checked the speed field on the GPS. 150 mph.

From the air, it felt oddly slow, even though it was more than double the speed limit on the road they were following.

He wondered how fast Latias could actually go. She heard his thourght and responded psychicly. "Well, my brother can go faster than sound. I'm only a bit slower, but I don't carry stuff often so with you on my back... I'd say 300 miles an hour. Guessing. But you'd have trouble breathing, so I'm only going this fast. For now."

Mac would have nodded in agreement if he wasn't burrowing his head against Latias' back to stop the wind and cold getting into his face. Suddenly had a thourght. "WHAT ABOUT RADAR?" He shouted into her neck.

"What's a RADAR?" The comparatively quiet voice in his head asked.

Mac's hometown was near an RAF base which normally held 8 airplanes which hosted 'MAGIC', The UK's airborne radar network and threat detection system. The plane's had a round dish on the top that could scan for any airborne object that radio waves would bounce off. Like a missile. If an object wasn't recognized, then - Mac presumed - the fighter jets would be scrambled.

The planes flew at medium altitude: A few thousand feet higher than Latias, and Mac frequently saw them flying in circles above his school when he was smaller. And odds were, they'd detect Mac and Latias before they saw them. Especially if the military were looking for them.

Then again, RADAR depended on radio waves bouncing off the object, but (not that he'd checked) Mac was pretty sure feathers didn't bounce radio waves, they just absorbed them. Pretty sure. They'd been going for 15 minutes though, even gone almost directly over the RAF base, and they weren't being hunted by F16's.

While Mac was considering their chances of being shot out of the sky by hi tech fighter planes, Latias was thinking of home. More specifically, her brother.

The night before she'd been kidnapped, he'd said something to her. He'd said he found her... 'attractive', for want of a slightly less cruder word. Admittedly, he was drunk to the point of trying to imitate a French accent. And he also managed to knock himself out by flying into the ceiling shortly afterwards. So he migh not have been 100% in control of what he was saying. All the same, drunk humans are more honest, so surely the same applied to Latios?

The truth was, she saw Latios in the same light: He was strong, very masculine and all in all, a perfect mate. They'd need children anyway, unless the line of Lati's was going to die out. So why not just tell him how she felt? He'd understand. Actually, being a hormanal male, he'd probably be glad she finally told him. Bianca would probably freak out at first, sibling relationships were frowned upon in humans. But wild animals - Which Latias' instincts were constantly reminding her that she was - didn't take that into account.

She missed her brother/lover all the more when she thourght about him.

What about Bianca? How has she been coping? They'd be looking for her, no doubt. But she was on the other side of the world... And it wasn't the world they'd been told it was. All the land shapes and everything were different and...

The thourght of them panicing was even more depressing. Latias went back to thinking about what life would be like being Latios' mate. Him bringing presents. Her finding new berries to impress him with. Him punching things in the face if they got too close to the kids.

It was a good distraction, but eventually the long flight started to take its toll. Latias slowly started to loose altitude.

"Mac? I'm getting tired! I can only go about another ten miles." She telepathed him. However much discomfort she was in, Mac's was probably just as bad, physically and emotionally. He was in an environment he wasn't designed for, has just left his lifelong home for an indefinite length of time, is being hunted down and is going somewhere where he will know no-one. At least she had a prospective mate. It looked like Mac had nothing right now.

"That's okay, according to this, we're almost at a place called 'Wellingbourgh'. It's got a train station and we can catch a train from there, so long as there aren't any staff working. Or they have a ticket machine. I don't want to show my face if I don't have to..." Mac checked his portable screen for where they needed to be. He looked down to compare the views, but while he could see a few landmarks, the train tracks were beyond his resolution.

He took a guess at where the station was and took a brave lean forward to point at it to Latias. "That's round about where the station is. Can you fly lower and look for secluded spots we can set down at?"

Latias gave a positive coo, turned invisible and started to decend. To Mac, if it wasn't for the feel of Latias' feathers underneath him, he'd swear he was falling.

Just as they reached 700ft - according to Mac's GPS - he saw the train station roof, a typically bland glass/plastic construction that stuck out on the landscape like a magikarp in the elite four. Then, another roof. It was much higher, and it gave Mac an idea of where they could set down. He pointed it out to Latias. "There! That'll be perfect!" He shouted, making sure she heard.

Latias had indeed heard, and quickly decended onto the roof. The building was large enough that they wouldn't be seen landing on it by anyone in the surrounding streets, but Latias went as quickly as possible anyway: she really was starting to tire.

The roof was empty, with no obvious way onto it. The moment they touched down, Latias became visible and laid down on the floor, partly to let Mac get off, mostly because she was exhausted. Mac stepped off and looked worried.

He stroked her neck and looked increasingly concerned. "Latias? You okay?". Latias' psychic reply was weak, but still 'loud' enough for Mac to understand. It was accompanied by a feeble but happy coo, which made her seem slightly better than she looked.

"I'm fine... That flight was just so... Long... The moment I get something to eat, I'll be fine..."

Mac understood this. Energy equals matter multiplied by the speed of light squared. She must have been using an incredible amount of matter/food to produce enough energy to get them airborne. Still, she could eat on the train. There wasn't anything on this rooftop, not even a snail. But he had a plan to get them down, without getting caught. He dug into his bag and spoke to Latias as he did.

"Can you still turn into that human form?" He asked. Latias responded by glowing a bright blue color. The color lasted longer than last time - clearly the less energy she had, the more time the transformation took. Eventually though, the color dimmed and a girl was revealed, sprawled out on the tarmac roof. Mac looked at her brefly as she turned around off her stomach and sat up, then he pulled 2 bright green bibs from his bag.

Latias looked at the clothes. They were bright green, and had writing on them. Mac passed her one and put the other on himself, swapping it for his hoodie and patting down the front and back so it had less creases. She tried to do the same, but managed to mess it up and put it on the wrong way round, She looked up at Mac and did a 'Help?' Face. It wasn't on back to front. It was on upside down.

Mac helped her out as he explained how the bright green color was going to help them be camouflaged.

"Theise are from one of my job's assignments." Latias read the small text on Mac's bib. 'HEALTH AND SAFETY EXECUTIVE'.

"Basically, the people who wear theise are allowed anywhere, anytime. They normally have a badge which can be scanned, but in the 3 weeks I had to do this, I never once was asked for it. I nicked a set of two before I left, I knew they'd come in usefull."

Latias wasn't quite following, but kept silent.

Mac helped her stand up and they both looked at each other. After he was assured they looked semi-believable - and with Latias wearing that blouse, she had to admit that they did - he turned to walk towards the edge of the roof that had a one-way fire escape, left over from before two stories were demolished. Pushing the bar made the gate swing open, and they both stepped onto a metal gantry attached to the side of the building.

Mac could see workmen on the area where the staircase went down to. They were loading parcels into vans with "ROYAL MAIL" printed on the side. Perfect.

As they reached the bottom floor (pushing open another metal gate in the process) a worker ran up to them. He was wearing a red flurecent bib, safety goggles around his neck and spoke with a barely understandable accent.

"Oi! What do you think your doing here in there then mate?"

Luckily, Mac lived in Yorkshire and understood even the most inunderstandable accents. He replied in the most upper class and official accent he could muster

"I'm Jake Spencer, this is Tia Sharp, we're with the Health And Safety Commission.". The worker suddenly looked very worried. Thiese guys could close them down with the snap of their fingers. He put his goggles on as 'Jake' continued to talk.

"I've just conducted a test of your fire escapes, they could be better, not alarmed or protected in any way, rusty construction..."

As Mac rattled off a list of made up problems, Latias started to wander off. He should have really told her to stay with him, but she was inquisitive.

"And it looks like my coulleage is about to find even more examples of malpractice. If you wouldn't mind showing us the exit, please, your duty manager WILL hear about this. Mrs Sharp. Tia! With us now please, quick sharp!". Haha. Quick sharp. It was funny because her last name was 'sharp'.

Latias turned around upon hearing her nickname and started walking back to Mac, who was being led off by the workman.

This place was interesting, loud machinery, lots of dirt, all kinds of interesting smells... And really, REALLY big cars with boxes being put in them. What was inside? Would one go to the airport?

But she had to stay with Mac. He was taking her home, after all. She ran to catch up, and joined him as he was taken to a small door set next to a much bigger door in a wall. Mac hit a button and the door made a buzzing noise. The workman opened the door for them. He looked Mac in the eye, Glanced at Latias, then closed the door the moment they were through.

"Latias, try and stay with me? This is difficult enough as it is."

Latias telepathed him a 'sorry', as Mac set off towards the train station which was just around the corner.

One short walk and a traffic light crossing later - which Latias was extremely intreuiged by - They arrived at the front of the station. Even though it was just a short walk, Latias was panting. "If you're going to pant, don't stick your tongue out" was the only advice Mac would offer on the subject.

The station had automatic doors, which slid open when they approached. Mac decided that their next task would be to buy a ticket: the last thing they'd need was to be arrested for fare dodging. Since they were trying to stay unnoticed though, he used the automated machine instead, agonizingly sliding in notes to the machine, paying 100 pounds cash for 2 First Class Return tickets to London. Even if the police did track this transaction, they'd assume he was coming back, when in actual fact he'd be taking a plane out of the country altogether.

Thought the entire process, Latias was trying to see around him and look at the machine, looking around his left shoulder, then his right, then moving his left arm so she could see the screen, then the same with his right.

Eventually, the machine spewed out 4 tickets and Mac grabbed them, stuffed them in his wallet and returned it to his trouser pocket.

Mac checked the train times: They'd just missed the last train, but the next one would be in 20 minutes. It was cold though, and Latias had mentioned being weak to cold, so they went to wait in the waiting room. It wasn't much warmer, but it was better than waiting on the unshielded platform. Mac sat down on a seat close to the door and Latias took the one next to him, as they both listened to announcements telling passengers not to cycle, run, smoke or throw bricks at the trains.

Mac realized he hadn't seen the news in a while, and removed his phone from his pocket. It was running off an unregistered Pay As You Go, so the police couldn't track it - Mac had got it for just such an occasion - and he connected to the waiting room WiFi, which was thankfully free.

He opened the 24 hour news app, plugged in his headphones and offered an ear bud to Latias while the video loaded. No doubt she'd want to see what was happening in this whole new world.

Latias knew what the ear bud was, Bianca sometimes wore them to listen to music. But why was Mac offering her some music? He didn't even know what she liked. But she took the earphone anyway, and screwed it into her right ear.

Mac moved the screen in front of both of them and Latias realized she'd be watching a video of some sort. After 2 seconds of loading, the news theme came on. It started from the last rerun of the news headlines, so they wouldn't join halfway through a story. The intro finished and a newsreader appeared behind a desk. What sent Mac into shock was the headline in the background.

The studio's background that normally showed the main feature was replaced with the BBC breaking news banner and the words "MILITARY THEFT" in big capital letters. Behind it was a picture of the 'printing press', looking ominous with armed soldiers and surface to air missiles parked outside. So much for keeping that a secret.

Latias took longer to realize, but when she did, she almost hung her head in her hands. The only thing stopping her was wanting to see the rest of the article. The main newscaster started to speak.

"Good morning, Welcome to BBC News. Our top story..."  
The camera angle changed so the presenter was now looking side-on, with the breaking news sign behind him.

"Police are looking for a man in connection with a break in at a military facility in the early hours of this morning. The man, named as Mac Simmons" - The mention of his name made Mac's heart stop there and then - " reportedly broke into a secret military test site and stole a highly dangerous test sample. It is understood that he was last sighted by military police at his own home, but failed to be apprehended because the house search was not carried out correctly."

As if things couldn't get worse, The screen cut to a shot of Mac, surrounded by the words 'WANTED' on either side and 'CALL 999' on the bottom in red. The picture was the last one they took at his school, and he had changed a bit, but he was still somewhat identifiable. in the same way a courgette was somewhat recognizable as a cucumber.

"The police have provided a photograph and are warning that he is highly dangerous and should not be approached or apprehended by any member of the public. If you have seen him, police demand you contact 999 immediately so he can be detained for questioning. Over to our military affairs correspondent for more information..."

The picture disappeared from the screen, but it stuck in Mac's head. He was wanted. He was actually being seeked out. They knew he was the perpetrator. It was almost certainly from the DNA he left behind. They got that done quickly.

But he was being hunted down. They'd put out a photo of him. Anyone could see him now and sound the alarm. Although the photo was about three years old and taken at a time when he wasn't even shaving.

For the sake of Latias though, He kept himself together. She was starting to shiver, and it wasn't the cold. Luckily, the waiting room was empty, so no one saw Mac's attempts to calm Latias down.

"Latias, its okay, it's okay! Look at me. Look. Your eyes, at my face." He said to her, quietly and kindly but at the same time also forcefully.

She looked up though, and stared into his eyes.

"You will get home, because I promised it. Them putting an old picture out of me doesn't mean they've found me, does it? Most people won't see the news until they get home, and since most people are at work now, they won't know we're wanted until it's too late. Remember, they still think I'm 50 miles away. Somewhere near home. Listen. Look at me... Don't worry, I've even got a plan to get us through the airport too. If I can outsmart some military guards, then ordinary people and an airport shouldn't stand a chance. Trust me. Okay?"

Latias looked like she was about to cry, but she nodded.

Inside, she was almost crushed. Mac was the only person who could get her home, she was sure of that. And now his cover was blown, how we're they going to get out of this country? Never mind into her own!

The reporter on the screen was still talking, conducting interviews with various soldiers who were just reciting lines they'd been told to, essentially telling anyone that if they suspected anyone, they were to contact police immediately. Highly dangerous. Armed with dangerous military equipment. Criminal mastermind. Personality disorders. Possibly involved with the mafia. Traumatic Childhood. Prospective murderer.

As the program continued, it painted a worse and worse picture of Mac. Most of it was lies, but it still demotivated him. What would his mother do when she saw this? He'd thought the military were going to play this down and not announce their facility being broken into, given the panic it could cause. But obviously, it was that big a breach that they decided to prioritize capturing him and calming the public down later. They wanted him reigned in and most probably dead. Really, really badly.

The female newsreader cut in as the picture of Mac surrounded by wanted signs came on the screen again.

"Once again, if you see this man, contact police immediately. We really can't say that enough, can we Bill?". The male news anchor, obviously called Bill, agreed. "Yes, and we'll be giving you more news on that story as it develops..."

As the program cut to the weather, Mac heard his station announcement, by a flat, emotionless voice from the speaker in the ceiling.

"Platform 2, for the, 13:46, East Midlands Trains service, to, London's Saint Pancras. Calling at..."

Mac took a second and composed himself, before standing up. Latias had her arm linked with his, so he pulled her up too as he did. She was still crying, and Mac needed her desperately to calm down otherwise she'd raise even more suspicion.

"Come on Tia, we need to go. This is our train."

Using her nickname did the trick, and she brought her head up, wiping her eyes with a hand and making a sniffing noise, before forcing a smile.

"That's a good girl - Well... Dragon -. That's a good dragon. Now come on, I think you'll love the train!"

Latias doubted that highly.


	4. Chapter 4

Guess what guys? Snow. A fktonne of it. Just appeared outside my house. Still got to work though, even if the train waited for a few hours in the middle of nowhere. Not because of the snow, but because we hit and killed someone at 120 miles an hour and the associated organ mess takes a while to clean up.

Hence your longer - train based - chapter, sooner. In fact, it's almost half as long again. Enjoy!

* * *

The two unassuming teenagers stood on the platform, as their train slowly hissed up alongside them. The girl had funny shaped hair, and looked like she'd been crying. The boy was holding her hand, but it wasn't affectionate. It was almost like he didn't want to loose her. While the boy was looking nervous but determined, staring straight ahead at the train, the girl looked more... Inquisitive.

She rotated her head to watch the train carriages go by. They had letters on them, A, then B, then C, then... D... Then... E... Then...

The train stopped with a hiss that made Latias scowl back at it. It sounded almost exactly like a pokemon giving out a warning hiss, just before it attacked. Latias knew it was the train, but the noise still made her go on the offensive for a breif second.

As luck would have it, Mac had lead her right infront of where the doors stopped. With a beeping noise, the carriage door slid open. Mac had to hold Latias back so she didn't block the way out for the people wanting to get off. There were only three people getting off, but each one made Mac panic. What if they'd watched the news on their phone like he had? Not many people did, but it would only take one person to recognize him and call the police, and that'd be it. Game Over.

To avoid this, Mac stared at the floor and pulled his hood up, covering the distinctive blonde hair that could give him away, and hiding his face in one simple action. There wasn't much he could do to disguise Latias' human appearance - which was odd enough for people to note - but at least her picture hadn't been in the news. Which theoretically meant the military weren't looking for her. In her human form, at least.

"Come on Tia" - Mac had decided to call her by her nickname as it sounded a lot more normal in public - "Wai... Watch the step!"

Latias felt like she was in a dream. She was doing her actions, but it was like watching herself on a TV. Was it was because she was tired, or just the shock of their escape chances being slashed? She wasn't sure. But standing around wasn't going to help either situation. She paid close attention to the step like Mac said, and followed him onto the train.

Mac took her through to the first class coach. Not many people took first class on a weekend, it was generally only business people who took first class, and they didn't come out at weekends. So the entire carriage was thankfully empty. Mac took a window seat with a table, Latias took the one next to him, not wanting to leave his side.

Mac had chosen carefully. While it was a window seat, there was a piller in the way, so anyone looking in - mainly, police that could be on the platform - wouldn't see him. It was facing opposite the direction of travel too, the safest position available: If (however unlikely) the military forcefully stopped the train, the chances of him being without injury, and therefore chances of running away afterwards, were greater.

Latias still hadn't let go of his arm, gripping with a suprising amount of strength. She needed to calm down otherwise she'd attract all the attention of the airport police if and when they got there. Mac decided that once they were moving with enough engine noise, he'd explain his plan. It sounded watertight, so with any luck she'd stop panicing. Or at lease, not panic as much as she was now, at least. Poor girl. Hadn't done anything wrong, Abducted by the military, torn away from her own family, escaped to find she's on the other side of a foreign planet, and she thinks her chances of getting back home are around zero...

Mac didn't blame her for feeling unstable.

Mac swung his bag around so it was on the table infront, and decided to try normal socialization with Latias. That would make her more comfortable, at least.

"Have you ever been on a train before?"

Latias shook her head. Mac wanted actual words, even if they were only psychic. Once she started 'talking', she'd feel a lot better.

"Oh, they're great! Travel almost as fast as you fly when I'm on your back, take the shortest route along the ground, comfortable..."

Latias decided to engage, he was just trying to be polite, after all.

"What, and I'm not!?" The words materialized in Mac's head with unmistakable offense.

"No! Your very soft! It's just trains don't have 150 mile per hour winds in your face."

"Oh, Right. That never really bothers me when I'm flying..."

At that point, the train lurched forwards, making Latias' emotion change from slightly depressed to absolute alarm. Mac reassured her. "It's okay... That's normal. Well, actually, since we're on time, I'd say it's completely abnormal!" - A joke? Considering the perils he was in, he'd perked up a lot now they were getting closer to the airport - "Seriously though, at this rate, we'll be at London International airport in about an hour."

The airport? That had the airplane in it, and the airplane would take her home! This cheered up Latias more than anything else, and her face reflected it. Mac smiled when he saw Latias' face brighten up.

"But let's just chat for now. I've seen you do so much so far, but something tells me you can do a lot more. It'd be better if you mentioned it now so I can incorporate it into any plans..."

After a moment of consideration, Latias telepathed Mac.

"Well... I can do both psychic and dragon type attacks, as well as normal, a few elect-"

"Slow down? Attacks? Types?"

Latias rolled her human eyeballs. "You know how I turn invisible? That's a skill. Many other pokemon can do that skill, though some in different ways. But there are other skills, known as 'attacks' that we can do too. There's simple ones like 'bite' that are instinctive. But because we've got special powers - like psychic - we can also form 'attacks' which we can use in battle. If the attack is unique to us, we either are born with or learn by accident. My unique attack is called Mist Ball. It's made of a combination of dragon and psychic type power, and due to its nature, only I can do it. Part of the reason we battle is because we know attacks, and how good a trainer is is based on how good their pokemon can do their attacks."

Mac slowly tries absorbing the information, but it was like trying to soak up syrup with a brick. So much had happened to him in the last few hours.

"Oh... Kay... So how many 'attacks' do you know?"

"About 50"

Mac had expected a smaller number, so that she could tell him what each one did. But it looked like that wasn't going to be the case. He chose the one Latias mentioned last.

"So, how would you go about doing a 'mist ball'? and what does it do?"

"Well... I focus my aura around my chest area, then let it build. While that's happening, I put some psychic power into a ball of mist I imagine until it becomes real. I power the aura into that, then propel it with some dragon power. It hits the opponent and does a bit of damage, then it bursts and does much more. And only I can do it. My brother has a unique move, it's called Luster Purge. It's like a beam of energy, but I've no idea how he does it..."

Mac wasn't often confused. But what he was now surpassed confusion. Sure, it sounded simple in theory. In practice, Mac knew nothing of her version of energy or power or aura. And the information wasn't particularly useful by way of helping a plan.

"Well, Okay. But what do you mean by damage? As in, does it hurt the pokemon, and if so, does it also hurt a human, and how? Could we use them to stun someone or something?"

After a pause, she turned up in his head again. This time, Latias' mental voice was a bit more stern. "Listen. Me and my brother are generally peaceful. Leave us alone, and we'll leave you alone kind of thing, only more social and caring. But we are protective, and we are just animals, really. If I bite a human with force, they're losing a limb. If someone starts attacking Latios and it looks serious, I will attack them and it will be fatal. But that's only if it's a human and looking serious. Don't let it change your opinion of me, because, you know. I'm normal and kind, aren't I?"

Mac was seriously spooked now. All it'd take would be to hurt her accidentally and there would be a strong possibility he'd loose his head. Literally. A change of subject was in order, he thourght.

"Okay, don't worry. I think your okay... So... They call you a dragon type, but don't dragon's have a forked tounge so they can sense smell better?"

Latias was glad Mac wasn't too freaked out about the whole 'Hurt me and I kill you' speach. And his question was interesting... He definitely had a point.

"Well... I think it's kind of got a fork shape to it, but I don't know what you mean exactly. Next time I'm myself you can check. I do have an above-human sense of smell though. For example, I know from your smell that you're a male human going through adolescence. You smell kind of like a male in heat, though the wrong species and not a particularly strong smell either, so not a very attractive mate prospect."

This embarrased Mac somewhat, but Latias read his thoughts, so he didn't have to say them outloud to get her response. Whereas he was embarrased, Latias just thourght it as daily life: there was no embarrassment discussing relationships with other animals.

"Yes, male's don't have 'heats' as such. But you do give off a smell which indicates interest, even if you're human and not aware of it. And no, it's not me you're interested in, I don't think. You're probably just giving it out because you're adolecent and unsettled or something. Or perhaps just the excitement that's been happening..."

Mac mumbled under his breath. "Yeah... pheromones and stuff". Latias heard but didn't understand what a pheremone was. Perhaps it was the complicated name for a smell. Speaking of, she missed Latios' smell. She'd grown used to it while he was around, but now it wasn't there, she felt like something was... Missing...

The carriage settled into an awkward silence devoid of verbal or psychic communication, as the two sole occupants debated their own thourghts: Latias about Latios and getting home, and Mac on controlling how he smelled like even though he couldn't smell it.

Neither two were particularly easy subjects.

After a pause, her voice appeared in Mac's head again, sounding a bit more needy. "Mac? I'm tired. Can I sleep?".

"Do you want something to eat? Didn't you say that would be better?"

"Oh yeah! But I can't smell anything around here that's edible."

Mac wondered if her nose was still super sensitive even though she was in this girl's form. Probably not without her adapted tounge or nostrils. At any rate, he heard a clatter that would answer Latias' question soon enough.

Right on cue, the automatic door whooshed open and the snack trolley rolled in from behind them, pushed by a slightly fat woman.

"Here, this okay?" Mac said as he raised his hand to attract the trolley ladies attention. Latias' response was just a confused stare. She failed to see how the trolley could provide enough nutrition. It didn't even look edible...

The trolley pulled alongside the table and the woman eyed the pair suspiciously. What were two kids doing in first class?

"Can I see your tickets first?" She asked, not bothering to mask the scorn in her voice. When she was their age, the back seat of the bus was privileged transport, and theise two were in flippin' first class!

Mac had seen her suspicious expression and was worried she'd seen his picture on the news, and was hugely relieved when she returned his ticket and apologized, voice a tad brighter. "Sorry. Don't get many kids in first class normally, is all..."

Even though he was nearly cacking himself, Mac made the effort to sound cheerful, laughing as he made up a reason for first class other than 'I don't want someone recognising me and end up being killed by the military'.

"Decided to treat the girlfriend to a week in London, and had some spare dosh is all". The trolley lady gave a knowing nod and secretly wished her husband was that nice. "Lucky lady she is then, innit love?", giving Latias a friendly nudge, like she wanted her to pass a comment.

Latias was confused. Was the woman talking to her? What was an 'innit'? And at any rate, she couldn't respond.

"eh... Sorry... She's a mute. Can't talk" Mac told the woman in a matter-of-factly mannor.

"Oh, right... Hey, less nagging for you then! Anyway, what is it you'll be wanting then?" she asked, indicating with a sweep of her hand all the goods the wheeled convenience had.

Mac couldn't tell what Latias was looking at, but she probably knew what she wanted more than he did. Mac took a guess that she'd be naturally inclined towards sweet tastes as she was a wild female animal that would normally go picking fruit for the male or children. Unless it worked the other way round in pokemon. It occupied Mac' inquisitive brain though, a welcome distraction. "Go ahead, just point at whatever you want..."

Latias looked at the array of packaged foods available. She couldnt smell any of them, the packets were airtight. But when she chose berries, the brightest ones always tasted nicest. Latias took a second to analyse which packet looked the most colorful, and pointed at the brightest packet visible. Mac did the talking. "Okay then. A bag of skittles please. Actually, make it 3. And do you have any energy drinks?"

The woman frowned, but looked in the drinks compartment anyway. "They'll do you bad, son, you know. But if yer' want. What kind?"

Mac didn't normally have energy drinks, but Latias might want them depending on how tired she actually was. Assuming they would work on her, having not got a human anatomy and everything. "It's going to be a long day. Can I have a can of Red Bull and a can of Monster?"

The trolley lady handed over the two cans. There was an age Iimit on them, and the couple looked young, but over 16. Travelling first class, for heavens sake!

"That'll be nine pounds thirty five." She told him, adding the numbers up in her head faster than your average maths nerd could.

Mac knew the prices were steep and had already pulled out two notes, a £10 and a £5. He was feeling generous. "Take both". It wasn't like he would going anywhere that the change would be useful.

The lady thanked him for the change and wheeled the trolley on, pushing it through another sliding door and down the train.

Once the door closed, he opened and passed a pack of skittles to Latias. She took the packet with her left hand and removed a single yellow sweet with her right, taking a bit more care than normal. The packet didn't look familiar, and it could work a different way. Or just fall over for no reason, like if she ever tried handling human-made things in her dragon paws.

She looked at Mac for confirmation that she was meant to eat this bit, it was yellow, after all, not the most friendly of colors. On the other hand, it smelled really sweet. Mac chuckled and nodded. She put the sweet in her mouth and started chewing. It tasted artificial, but very sweet and flavorsome. Like a nicer version of a pokeblock. It tasted good though, so she smiled to let Mac know.

Mac smiled back and began talking, taking care to speak quietly so the engine noise would mask his voice to any listening devices. "Like them? Good, I thourght you might. Now listen, I'm going to tell you the revised plan."

Latias nodded and listened in closely.

"To get through the airport, my passport needs to work, which it won't because the police will have blocked it".

Latias stopped chewing on her sweet and looked shocked, so Mac quickly continued.

"BUT! don't worry! Here's what's going to happen: Before we get off this train, I'm going to program this box" - he lifted up a small plastic tub with some electrical connections at the side for Latias to see - "to send a message to 70,000 computers worldwide. They will, in turn, starts sending messages to the computer that deals with authenticating passports. That'll overload it long enough for the airport having to resort to their local copy of the passport database that was last updated" - he checked his watch, oblivious to the look of total confusion on Latias' face - " fourteen hours ago... Before they were looking for me and will have blocked my passport. So on their copy, I'll be okay to travel. I'm going to leave this box on the train and activate it with my phone just before we get to the check-in desk. That way, they'll read my passport as OK, and I'll get through fine!"

Latias continued chewing the sweets. She hadn't really been listening to his plan, but if it was as confusing to everyone else as it was to her, they didn't have a hope in catching them. She hadn't eliminated the look of puzzlement on her face, though, and Mac explained further.

"You will arrive at the airport in human form, but before security, go into a toilet and turn into your invisible form. The security hall should be tall enough for you to fly over all the scanners while I pass through them. On the other side, you go into another toilet and change back. I clear security, find you and we board the plane. Then it's only 6 hours to Hong Kong. From there, we're safe, and you can take as long as you like flying us home"

Latias perked up at the word home, feeling a blast of happines. She also felt a bit less tired. Perhaps the sweets were working. Perhaps the raised hopes about getting back to Latios were just making her feel more energetic. Either way, she couldn't wait.

Mac saw her face light up at the mention of home. So she was at least listening to that bit.

The train continued to thunder down the track, pushing it's way through the British countryside at a cool 130 miles an hour.

Mac had set up his laptop and linked a cable through to the plastic box, and was franticly tapping out lines of code, much to Latias' confusion. The Latptop looked like Bianca's, just a lot more... futuristic... And the words he was typing didn't make any sense...

She decided that her brainpower was better used understanding the bag of sweets.

Latias had just finished the bag when the ticket conductor entered, announcing his entry with the standard "Tickets Please", delivered in a bored voice that only someone who's said the phrase five thousand other times could master.

Mac once again delved into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, then presented the two tickets to the conductor. He looked at them breifly enough, and sure enough, it was valid. First class and all. Two of them. So the other one was for the girl.

He faced away from the table with a "Thank you sir", then carried on through the carriage, through the door which slid shut shortly afterwards. Mac hadn't said a word the entire time. But it didn't look like the ticket man had recognised them. He just looked bored.

Latias wanted the other bag of sweets, but didn't want to psychic Mac, he was pretty focused on his laptop. She had tried Bianca's vocal chords before, and only ever managed to produce an uncontrolled high piched wining noise. Useless for communication. But it might do to get his attention without making him loose track of his thoughts like a psychic communication would.

Mac heard a whinging sort of noise and realized it was Latias. He looked up from his code and at Latias instead. "Yes?"

"Hungry. Food?". The words appeared in his head without hesitation, and he responded by grabbing another bright red packet from his pocket, holding it up for Latias to inspect. "This?"

A nod of the head told him 'yes', so he opened it and passed it over to Latias, who eagerly took it and started daintily eating the sweets one by one again.

Mac thourght she might be thirsty too, and asked her. "Drink?". Another nod and Mac reached for the can of Red Bull, snapping the tab open with a 'PISHHHHPT!' sound that startled Latias and nearly made her drop the sweets. Mac noticed her alarm and presumed it was an animal instinct of some sort. Hissing noise prempts an attack, or something.

He passed the can over to a very wary Latias.

The hissing noise sounded really like a threat, more than the train, and she wasn't pleased with having to hold the can. Who knew what could be inside? With a hiss like that, it could be anything. Then again, Mac wouldn't give her something that he knew would harm her, surely?

She took the can with her spare hand and inspected it. It was predominantly silver, and on the 'front' was a picture of a taurous, shaded in red. Text was above and below it. Inside was some sort of liquid, which smelled quite nutritious. She could see it through a hole in the top, which she imagined you were supposed to drink it from. A straw would be good.

But she didn't have one, and Mac was sat looking at her, waiting, so she tried taking a gulp from the can, by lifting it to her mouth and tilting with her mouth up against it.

The majority went in, bar a small spill which she could easily deal with after considering the taste. It was strong and very sweet, but what Latias craved more right now was carbohydrates - not that she knew that was the name for them. Whatever they were called though, the liquid in this can had it in abundance.

She continued to gulp the drink down as Mac watched. He wasn't really sure if it was 100% safe for her to drink, but she seemed to be enjoying it.

He went back to his laptop, hammering away at the keys.

In a completely different section of the train, the trolley lady had just parked the trolley and took a 5 minute break. She wasn't entitled to one, but what we're they going to do? Lower her minimum wage?

She'd been going since 7 that morning and hadn't even gotten to see the news that morning because she'd overslept. She slipped her phone out of her pocket and breifly cycled through the headlines.

The top news story caught her eye though. More specifically, the picture next to the headline. It looked exactly like the boy in first class...

"Well I never", she muttered, as she grabbed the train phone from inside a panel in the carriage, and dialed 999.

Back in first class, Mac was leaning back, waiting for his computer to finish uploading the program to the box. There was no testing the program, though. If he'd got so much as a hyphen in the wrong place, it wouldn't work and the airport would most likely get him caught. To take his mind of the prospect of failure, he looked at Latias.

Latias was still sipping the drink, but interestingly any liquid that landed on her blouse would just quickly evaporate. Mac put it down to psychic as the computer made a 'pling' noise, task complete. Excellent. He unplugged the box and flipped a switch on the side, checking a series of lights on the side, before flicking the box back off.

Two miles out of London, the train started to slow down, ready to pull into the platform. Mac sensed this and packed up the laptop and cables, shoving the remaining drinks can and bag of sweets in a hoodie pocket, getting ready to leave the train as soon as it arrived. Latias gave him a puzzled look.

She'd finished the drink and second bag of sweets, feeling a lot better. She didn't know what they were, but they definitely made her less tired. If anything, she felt really energetic. She was going to get home! And see Latios! Mac had a plan!

Mac stood up, gesturing for Latias to as well. She did, but needed a little push until she realized she was meant to get into the isle. "Come on!"

The pair walked to the exit door in the carriage annex just as the train pulled into the station. Mac looked out of the window set in the train door and his mood changed from confident to worried. By the looks of it, they'd pulled into a platform that was still under construction:

Cables ran across the floor, scaffolding reached up past his field of view and the digital displays that normally indicated what the next train would be were half-installed, faceplates hanging off and lights lit in no discernable words or pattern. He knew that the station was old and constantly being maintained, but it shouldn't have been in this state, and anyway, there was no one waiting on the platform ready to board the train when the existing passengers had left, like their normally would be. Something was seriously up.

And why would they have pulled into an platform that clearly wasn't even built properly yet?

With an uneasy jolt that made Mac nervous, the train jarred to a stop. Something just didn't feel right... And why wasn't the 'door open' button lighting up? Why weren't they being let off the train?

5 seconds passed.

10 Seconds...

The light wasn't lit, but Mac was pressing the button anyway, just in case the bulbs were broken. They weren't. The door remained closed and locked.

30 seconds...

Mac didn't see anyone on the platform, but because of the narrow window quite a lot of it was out of view. Either way, someone extra must have got on the train, because an announcement from none of the on board staff came over the tannoy.

"This is the police" - Mac nearly fainted there and then - "The train is surrounded. Would the gentleman in first class exit the carraiage via the rear door with his hands on his head. Leave any items where you are sat. All other passengers remain seated. I repeat. You know who you are. Exit the train NOW, with your hands on your head. Final Warning. You Are Surrounded."

Mac took another look out of the window, nearly shitting himself. This was serious. Although he had to admit, they didn't look surrounded. The platfor-

Before he could finish that thourght, his doubts were shattered and worst fears confirmed in one gut-wrenching, heart splitting truth.

From behind the pillars that were holding up the train station's grand roof, armed police swarmed and fanned out, immidiatly dropping down to the firing position the moment they were in place, supporting their gun with one hand and aiming with the other, all in sync. Like the world's most morbid ballet.

An orchestra of clicking noises rang out from the police lines, as one by one, every wepon's safety was flicked into the 'OFF' position. One click, and it became a life or death situation.

In fact, the force consisted of every single firearms officer London had. 75 men, 40 with assault rifles and 20 with various automatic weapons, both of which also had a taser concealed in a variaty of hiding places. The remaining 15 were normal bobbies who just so happened to carry PK9 pistols.

In seconds, every single one of those primary weapons was pointing directly at the train.

The shock hit Mac like a punch in the stomach, and Latias looked fit to cry again. Mac had seconds to think of a plan. Seconds. Not minutes. Think of a plan now! Leave by the opposite door? No a glance confirmed that there were police on the opposite platform as well. But latias hadn't been told to leave the train by that announcment. So the police were still in the dark about her human form. They were just here to detain him. And hand him to the military. And most likely a firing squad. He needed a plan. NOW! What tools did he have for his disposal?

A T bar key that could operate any function of the train. Smoke grenades. His little plastic box. Some wire. Pen knife. Latias...

Latias... Innocent looking, crying child. Also used as a meat shield? No. Too high a risk... But...

"LATIAS!" Mac said, as urgently as possible, shaking her by the shoulders, making her look up. Mac tried not to notice the look of defeat in her eyes.

"Listen, We can still escape. All I need you to do is run down there" - he pointed to the door to standard class - "And look like you're crying. Running, if possible. Could you?"

"I don't want to leave you." The sobbing voice materialized in his head. Mac was growing angry, but tried to hide it.  
"I'll be running right after you, don't worry. I won't abandon you. But if we want to avoid gettting killed, you need to do this NOW. Run down the length of the train and wait for me at the end of it."

"o... okay."

Without a word passing her lips, she set off towards the front of the train, pausing only briefly to figure out how the door opened. It opened when she went near it and she dashed through.

Mac did the next task as quickly as possible.

He pulled out a smoke grenade from his bag and pulled the pin, before rolling it on the floor into a corner near an air con intake. 8 Seconds before it went off.

Next, he opened another air conditioning grill to his left with the t bar key he stole from the station office a few years ago, and slid in the plastic box he'd spent the last hour programming. He checked for the green lights, before slamming the grill shut and locking it again. You couldn't see inside the shaft and it was opened with a legitimate key, so it looked untampered with

Mac zipped up and swung his bag over his shoulder, and had a second to prepare himself before the grenade went off, filling the carriage annexe with thick smoke in under a second.

He let it build to almost unbearable levels, then took a step into standard class, allowing smoke to spill out of the door before he stepped through it himself. He needed to make this look genuine...

Up until that moment, the people in the standard class carriage had been staring opened mouthed at the police outside. That changed when a boy ambled in, doubled over with smoke pouring in from behind. After coughing twice, he spoke up, everyone listening in.

"Never mind the guy in first class. First class is on fire!" Mac coughed out to the people in the carriage. As predicted, it took a few seconds to sink in, but then they all realized. Smoke? First class on fire? Wait, Wait... THE TRAIN IS ON FIRE?

50 minds all reached the same conclusion at once: Get off the train now, or you might catch fire.

50 People exiting a narrow tube through one walkway is bound to cause chaos, which is exactly what Mac planned. Chaos was the best form of disguise, and so long as he acted chaotic along with them, slipping away unnoticed - with Latias in tow - should be easy. Theoretically.

In the real world, people had got fed up with waiting to go through the door, and instead started smashing the train windows with the emergency hammers, and jumping out of them instead. Not only was that even more chaotic, it also cleared the gangway for Mac to begin 'evacuating' the next carriage. After fighting his way to it through the escaping crowd, he was plesently suprised when word of the made up fire had been grossly exaggerated, so the next carriage was trying to escape the 'raging inferno', according to one woman. As Mac went down the train from carriage to carriage, he encountered fewer and fewer people, the rumor of a fire reaching people before he could.

At the front end of the train, a very confused Latias stood and watched as Mac calmly walked through a broken automatic door that had had its glass front smashed by fleeing people. This didn't stop it from sliding out of his way when he reached it.

Mac gave Latias a breifing. "Right. Everyone is on the platform, running for the exits. We mingle with that crowd, we escape past the police with them, then it's next stop airport. Okay?". Latias nodded, looking determined for once. Mac grabbed her immitation shoulders again, and leaned in close. He wanted her to understand this next bit 100%.

"Listen. If they catch me, run away. Fly away if you need to. Just get out. You're needed back where you belong, I'm disposable. If you ever think of coming to rescue me, just remember who your family is. Your loyalty is with them, not me. Now let's go!"

Mac dashed out of the train door that had been opened via the emergancy handle by paniced passengers. Latias followed, looking as hectic as possible for the sake of blending in, but as she ran, she mulled over Macs words... Her loyalty was with family? Yes. But Mac had saved her? Mac was family, for all intents and purposes. If she had learnt one thing from his miniscule speach on the train, it was that she was going to disregard everything he said if it involved being selfless.

The police were confused. The plan was for the mark to step out of the train, or failing that, officers to apprehend him on it should he resist. But instead of one mark with his hands on his head, the 75 policemen were now faced with a 200 civilian riot, heading right at them, intent on escaping through the platform emergency exits, that they'd tactfully tried to block off to stop the mark escaping, should he try to do a runner. Thew weren't equiped for this, not even a single riot shield.

The general watched the mayhem from inside a mobile ops unit parked just outside the station. It was relaying live video from the station, train and officer helmit cameras. The cameras in the train had recorded right up until the point where the mark had let off a smoke grenade. After that, all the ones inside were smoked over and unusable, the smoke quickly spreading through the air conditioning system which, due to a design flaw, ejected the air directly in front of the security cameras. If the general was less professional, he would have slapped his forehead. But he was a professional, and so set out immediately doing the professional thing, which involved a lot of shouting, a lot of swearing, and a fair amount of cursing the guy who designed the train.

Eventually, he calmed down enough to issue a command to his officers, slamming down a 'TRANSMIT' button and barking into a microphone.

"Attention. The smoke source is not a fire, it is a smoke grenade. I repeat, the train is NOT ON FIRE. Hold the crowd if possible, but if not filter them through the exits and disable anyone who looks remotely suspicious. Mark is as briefing, white male, blond hair, average height, and wearing a blue hoodie. He also has a female companion who is wearing a blouse and miniskirt. Disable and detain both at high priority. Standard rules of engagement still apply, don't let this spill out of the station otherwise we'll be in the shit with the media. Again. Over."

His reply was 75 "affirmatives".

On the platform, Mac and Latias had both made their way undetected into the centre of the escaping crowd, who had broken police lines and got to the exits with minimum difficulty. Yes, the police had guns, but they weren't allowed to fire them unless someone posed an immediate threat. And the majority of the panicing passengers were too busy running from a made up fire to even remember they had guns in the first place.

Mac and Latias made it to within 5 meters of the exit and freedom, when a huge SNAP! followed by a crackling noise made every single person's head turn right, towards a policeman who had just fired a taser in Mac's general direction. It had missed though, and the wires trailed uselessly around the legs of the crowd. The crowd all halted and ducked slightly, like he world's most tense flash mob.

A second of silence passed, the humans considering what the threat was and Latias considering how to respond to it.

"TARGET IDENTIFIED!" an officer behind the one who just fired the taser cried out, breaking the silence, and pointing his wepon at Mac, also making the crowd all react in the same way: By screaming and running even harder towards the exit.

Mac hit the deck as the other officer fired his taser, the shot missing him by centimeters and hitting a woman behind, who went down, spasoming wildly as the zapping noise of the electric current entering her filled the air, panicing the crowd further. If that was even possible.

Mac realized it might possibly be game over, after all, every single policeman could see him now he'd been pointed out. But he didn't stop trying.

Springing to his feet, he felt awfully guilty about shoving his fellow travellers to the side to use as a meat shield. He'd already pushed at least 5 people into the path of the tasers pointing in his direction. But it was either that or get hit by them, stopping Latias from getting home.

Said disguised dragon was trying desperately to keep up with Mac. Because of all the shoving Mac was doing, keeping up wasnt difficult. But the noise the tasers made was horrifying, and for some reason they made her disorientated, her internal compass failing whenever one fired. She kept pace with Mac though, and was relived when he managed to break through the crowd, out of the door and into the safety of the street beyond, safe.

The same could not be said for Latias. A foot short of the door's threashold, a flurecent bib wearing policeman tackled her to the ground, screaming to his fellow officers even as him and his charge fell.

"SECONDARY TARGET DOWN! COMPANION APPREHENDED!"

Mac heard the man screaming, stopped running and turned around in enough time to see Latias' fake human eyes looking up at him from the ground, as she herself was pressed down by 3 police men. A fourth slapped on her hand cuffs, while a 5th relayed the information to some unknown person. The remaining officers had either switched to their primary deadly wepons and had them all pointed at Latias head, or were finding another way out not blocked by people to get to Mac. It would take them a while through all the people.

Even though she was mute, Mac could see what those eyes were saying. Latias was thinking the same thing, trapped on the ground, ready to be taken away, surrounded and utterly hopeless. They'd fill her with bullets the second she tried transforming.

"I'm sorry, Mac."


	5. Chapter 5

Guess what guys? I'm an official published global news story writer! I can't say who for because of FF rules, but look out for my tag on the internet. Especially if you live in the UK.

I'm glad you pointed that out, obiten. In the games, it says that they move their down to appear differently. In the Japanese version of the film (and the manga, though my jap isn't that good and I may have just mistranslated) , that is never actually specified. Coupled with the fact that it would also ruin any scene where Latias touches anything with human hands and that no one who made the pokedex has actually seen them, and it's reasonable to assume that they got it wrong. Just the once. Do not worry, there isn't any plot holes, I'm just holding off explaining for a more suitable scene...

* * *

"Oi! Fags! Looking for someone?" Mac screamed at the policemen. Crude, yes , and not part of any plan. But it worked. All the police apprehending Latias and blocking the doorway turned their heads towards Mac, their primary suspect.

In the seconds it took to identify him, the barrels of several lethal wepons swung towards him, and away from Latias. But they were shooting out into the street, surrounded by civilians, and the target wasn't even causing a threat, so they couldn't open fire. Unless they were told otherwise.

All the police restraining Latias had already fired their tasers and had blocked the doorway in the process of tackling her down, so no other police could get through. They had to make the decision to either run and tackle him, abandoning Latias, or watch him reach into his bag side pocket and take 5 even paces backwards. They chose the latter, watching in confusion as a second officer scrambled over the detained Latias with a taser drawn.

The range of the standard issue MET police taser is roughly 35ft, and the round fires at around 30-50 feet per second, depending on conditions. The five steps Mac took backwards took his total distance from the wepon to 36ft, 4 inches.

With a bang, the officer fired his taser, and two wires trailing 55,000 volts headed towards Mac. Almost a second after he heard the bang, the two electrified barbs fell to the floor, barely a foot short of Mac. In an attempt to rile the police, Mac just raised an eyebrow. The angrier they were, the more mistakes they'd make.

"RUN MAC! JUST RUN!" Latias' voice screamed in his head, her eyes still pleading from the floor, but Mac just ignored it, carrying out his motions as smoothly as possible. He was going to rescue her or die trying, otherwise his life wouldn't be worth living.

With a 'click' noise, he detached another smoke grenade from his bag, before lobbing it through the fire door and directly at Latias.

Even as it arced through the air, the police scattered, with cries of "DIVE!" or false accusations of "FRAG!" ringing out, the unrecognisable grenade too fast and too far away to be properly identified. It clanked against the platform floor and rolled in front of Latias' face.

She'd seen the one on the train, and knew (unlike the police) that this wouldn't kill her. What it would do - she realized - was make the people with guns unable to aim at her through the smoke. Not that they were even doing that now, having dived out of the way of the unlethal grenade. All the other officers were trying to get out of the station to try and catch Mac from around the back, from the main exit. So there was nothing stopping her taking her normal form and escaping her handcuffs!

Mac had to admit, the grenade was more effective than be thourght. He'd had to gamble that Latias would be able to transform and to have heat sensitive vision to see through the smoke in order to get out, but he hadn't anticipated the police thinking the grenade was lethal. That was an added bonus.

As the grenade went off, Mac saw Latias' human frame turn blue, before the smoke erupted and turned it into a blue patch of opaque fog. He breathed a sigh of relif. All she needed to do now was fly him out of here.

Two seconds passed and nothing happened. Mac considered grabbing Latias from the smoke, but she'd know her own way out and he was only risking his own safety doing that. Instead, he quickly observed his own surroundings.

The street they'd emeraged into was empty now all of the people had ran away, more of an alley than a street really. Actually, seeing as there was no pavement and dustbins in the middle of the road, it was most definitely an ally, with a primary purpose to serve the railway station, meaning that the exit would either be out onto the front or back of the station, easily blocked by police. To his left, a Toyota pickup sat with a selection of aluminium scaffolding poles in the back, presumably used to help maintain the repairs on the platform he'd just escaped from.

Mac looked at the direction that the crowd of escaping passengers ran in. Blue flashing lights lit up the wall at the end of the ally, and Mac panicked for a second. Then again, so long as Latias completed her transformation soon, the only way they'd be able to block their escape is if they closed off the sky above them.

Just as Mac thought this, Latias did just that, and flew squealing towards him.

"Need to go! Now! Go!" Latias was squealing at Mac, the fact he couldn't understand her words mostly irrelevant. It was in her tone: urgency. She needed to scoop him onto her back and fly away ASAP.

Latias noticed an aura shift behind her, but carried on. Masked by the smoke, police started to filter through the doorway, all stopping when they the saw the big red and white dragon flying away. One thought occupied all their minds.

"What the fucking hell is that thing?"

In the control room, The sergeant cursed his luck. He'd known about the dragon and the military experiments and everything. But nowhere did it mention that this... thing... this ... test subject ... could turn into a human. And now all his officers could see it in its real, SECRET form, AND it was on the situation room tapes. This was meant to be a SECRET operation. Apprehend the boy and torture him until he told them where the dragon was. And then arrange an accident for him. Not that difficult, really.

But no. Now 30 officers had all seen the test subject, no doubt a few civilians too and the footage would have to be shown in the inevitable court case. Unless they destroyed everything.

The sergeant reached forwards onto the recorder console and flipped all the switches to OFF. One by one, the 'REC' icon in the corner of the video feed for each camera disappeared. A final switch, and the REC light on the microphone snaking towards him went out. He definitely didn't want this next bit on tape.

He clicked on the transmit button and spoke.

"Permission to engage granted. Use lethal force, aim for the anomaly. Take out the primary target next... Both targets are posing a lethal threat to the public. Repeat, lethal force authorised. Fire at will. Over"

Latias jolted as a loud crack erupted from behind her. It was sharper, higher pitched and louder than the tasers , and it sent a lump of metal flying past her. With a horrifying yet somewhat fun prospect, she realized she was being shot at. Horrifying because she wasn't bullet proof. Fun because if she put up a protect, she could be bullet proof, do all kinds of aerial patterns and they'd not do a scratch of damage to her. Imagine their faces!

With a childish glee, she put some psychic power into a move she'd done so often, she barely needed to concentrate, throwing up a shimmering protect around herself. It wouldn't reach far enough for Mac, but the gunmen were ignoring him for now.

Mac looked up as Latias was surrounded in a weird green glow. The police had clearly been given instructions to go ahead and kill her on the spot, which had Mac in a serious worry for the both of them from the very first gunshot. Admittedly, he didn't blame them for shooting her if they didn't know her personality, she looked very dangerous. After all, those teeth look very sharp.

But the good thing - aside from the fact that the bullets being fired at her just seemed to be bouncing off - was that the gunmen clearly thought that Latias was a much larger threat. It was almost as it they'd forgotten about him completely...

Mac reached to his side and slid one of the aluminium poles from the pickup truck and weighed it in his hand, the sound of gunfire masking the noise of clanging metal.

Mac was part of a gun club, so he was used to the noise that otherwise made Joe public run for cover. He took another glance at Latias, who he'd expected to flee the distressing situation, but actually almost looked to be enjoying taunting to police. She was the perfect distraction for Mac's attack. There were only seven visible marksmen, all in the firing position in front of the fire exit, all holding single-action rifles that Mac didn't recognise. But each one was aiming up at Latias and down the barrel, which essentially meant that they wouldn't see him until he was too close. And the sound of gunfire would stop each of them from hearing their team getting knocked out.

As well as being in a gun club, Mac also knew self-defence skills, especially with a set of nunchucks. The scaffolding pole didn't flex at the centre like a set of nunchucks, but that wouldn't be too much of an issue.

Mac stole his way to the side of the armed policemen and selected his action plan. Each of the gunmen had a Kevlar helmet, so a single knock to the head would be unlikely to cause unconsciousness in one blow. Several, however...

Mac jumped up and span the pole around in his hand, passed it behind his back, before bringing it round to hit the side of the first policeman's helmet. The rotation made the pole hit with a sickening crack three more times before the man collapsed to the floor, knocked out.

Mac kept the rotation up and knocked out four other police in the same way in less than twenty seconds, the sound of their own gunfire masking the sound of them being knocked out. But Mac's lucky streak wouldn't last, and it broke apart when the two remaining gunmen realized their buddies had stopped firing. While one provided cover fire at Latias, the other turned back and saw Mac swinging towards him with the scaffolding pole.

Latias saw the situation in slow motion. The other policemen that wasn't firing at her swung the gun round at Mac, who was defenceless bar the pole.

Mac compensated for the turn in tables, and flicked his wrist, making the pole rotate vertically and into the gun aimed at him. Caught off guard, the gunman's weapon flew from his grasp, letting off bullets in random directions as the man's finger caught on the trigger. The rounds went wild and spat into the side of the train station, and the gun clattered to the ground seconds later, out of reach.

Disarmed, the policeman grabbed for his baton, drawing it out and extending it in one wrist flick.

Mac stopped the pole rotating and used it as a ram to butt the policeman in the chest, but he moved to the side in a relatively easy dodge, before pulling the baton round and aiming for Mac's abdomen. He already knew this was the police's preferred strike point, and already had the pole blocking it. The steel and aluminium met with a clang.

At this point, the officer who was shooting at Latias realized the peril his co worker was in, and stopped shooting at Latias. Instantly, the ambient noise dropped.

Not that Mac noticed, he was too busy battling the policeman. The policeman was slowly edging towards his dropped weapon, but at a cost. Mac was getting closer to striking a blow to the suited policeman. One point of contact on the helmet would be all he needed.

Latias saw this and considered her options. Mac was loosing, not by much, but it wouldn't take much more and the policeman would be able to retrieve his dropped weapon. And why wasn't she being shot at any more? Where was-

She slowed down when she saw him. His body. The way he was facing. The thoughts in his head. His body language, his equipment and his gun.

All in the act of pulling the trigger. All the signs pointing the gun towards Mac.

Latias didn't think. Acted on instinct. Because faster than she could have thought about doing it, a hyper beam was already on its way towards the attacker.

The man didn't notice it. He was too busy focusing on the target. His Target. His job... line him up in the sight, don't rush. But be quick, because he looks pumped up. Check the surroundings. No civilians. No other higher priority dangers? Well, there was that red flying thing. But it's invincible. Can't be helped. This man. Looked like a boy. Was really a killer. He is the priority. He needs to be dispatched.

Take your time. But relax. Track through sight. Ignore the blinding light above you. Check safety OFF. Remove if required. Ignore that roaring noise. Then, when safe to do so, pull the t-

The man's thoughts stopped, as the hyper beam obliterated almost every living cell in his body in an instant. The skeletal structure resisted the beam for a second, then shattered explosively, chunks of bone spraying out from where the man once stood. The heat raised the temperature of the gun thousands of degrees in thousandths of a second, causing the metal to expand, crack and split, before locking up until the pressure became too great and the rifle joined its human counterpart in exploding into an infinitesimal about of pieces.

The remaining two battlers stopped and sprang apart, gazing at the spectacle that Latias had caused.

"Holy... shhhhhh... wah ?"

Mac was right to awe. The blinding light was seemingly coming from Latias' mouth, spiralling and scintillating all sorts of blues and greens, and bearing down on where he presumed a threat had once stood. Since the other officer was nowhere to be seen, that beam of light was aimed at him and disintegrated him. Killed him. Because he was about to shoot Mac.

A second later, and the light died down and all was quiet, bar the bubbling of the tarmac starting to cool down after being melted.

Mac got a horrible taste in his mouth, as shock started to set in. He didn't even notice dropping the scaffold pipe. The taste wasn't real, but it felt rotten and sour. Guilt. Latias had just killed someone so he could survive. That policeman must have had family. Tonight, they would get some irreversible news, all because of him. People didn't need to die, just inca-

One whack on the head with a baton later, and Mac wasn't conscious. Slumped to the floor, laid out on his back. The last officer was proud. Not only was the target apprehended, he was apprehended alive.

The remaining policeman had seen the destructive beam of light and quickly decided he didn't want to be next. When it had died down, the target was stood still. Watching the spot where the light was, but now only a bubbling pool of tarmac and human goo existed. The policeman realized this was his chance. The target was occupied, not retaliating. Running for his gun would probably snap the target out of it, but who said he NEEDED to be killed? The word the boss had used was "apprehend " with lethal force "if necessary".

Now all he needed to deal was with the giant bird thing.

"I'm not a bird"

The officer froze. Did that voice just appear in his own...?

"Yes. Now I think it's time to go to sleep"

Latias tried a sort of psychic attack on him, and he slumped to the ground in a similar fashion to Mac. Just knocked out by psychic power, or brain exploded, Latias didn't care. What she did care about was Mac.

She flew down from above the buildings, still visible and unprotected. She'd had to turn the protect off to fire the Hyper Beam, which had charged so quickly even she was amazed.

Mac was on the floor, laid out. Rainwater from a pothole had soaked his hair when he fell, and his face was purple in some places. Latias watched him for a few seconds, well aware of the police sirens that were getting closer. The alley had cleared, but the noise was definitely getting closer.

Mac's chest went up. Then down. Then up. Then down.

So he was breathing. Just asleep. All Latias needed to do was wake him. She nuzzled his cheek with her snout, cooing and generally making lots of contact with his face and noise near his ears. But it wasn't waking him.

"C' mon Mac. We need to go!"

The lights on the top of the police cars started to fill the ally as they turned the corner and closed in on the panicked dragon and the unconscious boy...

* * *

**Alto Mare, Hoenn Province.**

**4th January 2014, 09:37.**

"We need to talk to him" Bianca faced Lorenzo over the countertop in the kitchen.

She was growing worried about Latios. Ever since Latias had been kidnapped, he'd slumped into a decline. A bout of depression would have been understandable... But this..? This went beyond depression, past manic and into a whole new realm of sadness.

First there was the escape out of the hospital window, which she could understand. His sister had been kidnapped, after all. But then when he didn't return home for a week...well , she started to panic. The longest he'd ever gone away from the garden was 3 days, and even then he'd gone to the mainland with her, not on his own. They'd had fun.

With him gone, that memory was painful.

She missed Latias too. Officer Jenny had reassured her that there was something in place, but not detailed what, or if it would work, or when Latias would be back. She hadn't been shot as Latios thought, he only thought that because he was hallucinating pretty badly at the time. She had, however, been tranquillised.

She would just fly in and instantly the room would be more energetic. Latias was annoying at times, but they'd always had a laugh. Like when she had tried on Bianca's make up. Or they'd swap the beret around and confuse Lorenzo. When Bianca was smaller, they'd flown around Alto Mare with Latios when he did his checks. But with her gone, Bianca realized how empty her life was. She'd had to put on a smile when she was around Lorenzo or friends. But at night, when it was dark and she knew Latias wasn't in the garden, or at the foot of or on her bed, making soft noises, she had cried to herself. Big girls didn't cry, she knew. But she couldn't help it. Latias could be anywhere... She might never see her again, or hear those coos, or tell her not to chew on this or that...

With each day that passed, it seemed less and less likely that she would return. And things weren't getting any better...

When Latios had eventually returned (looking not only muddy but also bloodstained around his mouth), he hadn't said anything. Not a psychic message. Not a coo. Barely even a breath. He'd just laid in the secret garden, staring at a fish. Bianca had watched him from a distance a few times, and all he'd done was sigh and once done a really long and really really sad coo. Like he was missing her more than anything ever. When she'd gone, he'd stopped living. Just laid there and stared at the fish. It was a Relincanth, as Bianca remembered. Nothing amazingly special. Quite rare though.

Why didn't he just eat it?

Cubone was bored. Latias and Latios were fun when he first stumbled upon them. He'd never said, but he idolized the two of them. Latios for being active and fun, yet serious and sophisticated as the legend depicted. And admired Latias for just being plain mad. Like when she took a shower. In the human shower. He would have chuckled at the memory of her, but now that she was missing it just made him feel even more lonely then he was before he'd met them. Latios and Latias were the closest he'd ever got to a mother/father, and now both of them were too distant to reach. One by distance, one by depression. Or at least, Cubone guessed. Latios must be depressed. No one could go that long without doing something...

With Latias missing and Latios too far gone to care, Cubone had taken it upon himself to protect the soul dew. It wasn't so much as boring as just plain 'dull'. But it was a responsibility, and he was going to carry it out until Latios recovered. Which he suspected he could only do when Latias got back... Perhaps she was more than just a sister to him, Cubone mused, food for thought in an otherwise starved brain.

* * *

I forgot to mention! I've enlisted the help of obiten (the ever faithful reviewer) to help me out on some of the spelling and grammar in this and future chapters. Let us know in the reviews how good a job you think this dynamic duo has done!


	6. Chapter 6

Apology in advance for the lack of Lati activity in this chapter. I couldn't think of a way to progress AND include her that much in this scene. Enjoy :)

* * *

Mac woke with a jolt. Not 'sitting bolt upright' jolt. But a kind of jerking movement as all his joints responded to his brain switching on. He kept his eyes closed though, enjoying the good feeling of being awake after a short nap.

He could hear a noise though. A "cooing" kind of noise that sounded hopeful. Like his wakening had cheered something up, and not something human. It was familiar too. Mac struggled to remember what would make that noise. It sounded like some sort of animal. Like a bird crossed with a wolf.

And why was he asleep anyway? Where was he asleep? If he was at home on his mattress, it wouldn't be as solid as the thing he was on now. Nor would it smell of aviation fuel.

Mac groaned and the cooing noise sounded even louder. Slowly, his memory returned.

"YOU'RE OKAY!" Latias squealed as Mac grudgingly opened his eyes, her snout barely a foot from his face.

Mac was startled by this; Latias was very loud, very close and in some aspects, very intimidating. But once she stopped squealing, she removed a hand from the side of her levitating body and offered it to Mac, who warily took it and used it to lever himself into a sitting position, with a bit more grunting. It was getting dark, the sun starting to set behind Latias, casting a shade of red almost as deep as her feathers.

"Where are we?" He asked, the question seeming relevant even if the answer was blatantly obvious.

"Airport!" Latias announced both psychically and out loud. She was quite proud of herself, really. With Mac knocked out and the police closing in, she'd make the tactical decision to fly away carrying Mac. Except, with his arms in a non-rigid state, she'd had no option to bite around the closest thing she could think of to his scruff - the back of his hoodie's collar. You could bite Latios' scruff all day long and it wouldn't do anything. And when you were meant to pick up any pokemon pup, Latias had learnt that mothers always bit them by the scruff. But humans were too weak to do that, so she'd settled on the collar. She recalled their plan and decided the airport would be the best place to go.

From what she understood, the airport had various flying things coming out from it.

From there she'd just looked for a place that matched her assumption of what an airport was. She found it soon enough, giant metal tubes making scary roaring noises around her as she flew there and landed on the roof, closest to the road-like-thing that the airplanes took off from. Mac would have called the 'road' a 'runway' and the building, a 'terminal'. Not that Latias knew or would understand any of that.

Then she'd laid down and waited for Mac to wake up, prodding him with her snout every so often.

"The airport?" Mac asked, a bit of a dumb question considering the loud roaring noise of four jet engines powering an A350 into the sky in the background.

"Yeah. Come on, you're impressed!" Latias projected.

"Yes, I'm thrilled" Mac mumbled under his breath, not really amazed at Latias managing to navigate to a place less than a mile away. But then another thought creeped into his head which was a lot more urgent than mere annoyance. Concerning something that had happened while they were escaping.

"Latias...did you kill that person?" He asked in a hushed and somewhat angry voice. She knew what he was on about instantly.

Latias backed away from Mac and looked ashamed. She had, and couldn't really deny it. Not with an attack that large, Mac was bound to remember. As proven by him asking. She slowly nodded her head and whimpered, before ducking down and pushing her head against the tarmac roof, hiding her face.

"Yes."

Mac felt sorry for her, really. All she wanted to do was get home to her family, and really she was only using animal instincts in attacking. But then again, she had killed someone...

"Don't be upset, look. Listen." - Latias raised her head - "Okay? I don't blame you, you were just doing what you needed to survive. But in the future, when it comes to defending yourself? Non leathal. To humans. Unless it's urgent."

Latias did another nod in response. Then a silence fell between them, pierced only by the incessant whine of jet engines. Eventually, Latias had to ask.

"What do we do now?"

Mac considered this before jumping to his feet, wandering over to the edge of the roof.

"First, Latias, We're going to check the coast is clear." - he moved the sleeve of his hoodie and checked the time. "Quarter past four. I wasn't asleep for too long then. Lets hurry. They shouldn't have posted police here, they'll be expecting us to try something less obvious and a bit further away. Once the coast is clear, we're going to get off this roof, you're going to turn invisible and follow me through security and then we board the plane and 'BOOM!' it's homeward bound."

Latias liked the sound of that last bit.

"Of course, the police that there are here will need distracting..."

Latias didn't like the sound of that part.

Mac walked into the departure hall, seemingly alone. In actual fact, Latias was floating invisibly not 1 meter above him, looking around for any threats. She'd briefed Mac on how he could communicate with her via his thoughts - so long as she was listening - and right now he was asking her about security.

"Can you see anything?" His thoughts asked.

There shouldn't have been in many special police at the airport, Mac reasoned. They should all be responding to the panic alarm going off at the London stock exchange. Not Mac's fault. Nothing at all to do with him hacking the system. Nope. There was no way the alarm would be traced to a virus he'd put on a memory stick in the car park of the trade centre and left to be installed two years ago, to be activated with his mobile as they were climbing down from the terminal roof. Nope.

While Mac was almost grinning with his own genius, Latias could indeed see many somethings. A man with a Mexican hat on. A woman with a ridiculously cute baby. Another man who looked like some kind of movie star, what with his glasses and expensive looking suit...

And several men with guns standing either side of an entrance to a doorway marked 'DEPARTURES'

"Four men with guns...over by the yellow sign" She beamed back, as Mac looked for the travel agents. Airports always had one, and this one was no exception. Mac never personally saw the point, who booked a holiday AT the airport? No-one, they always booked in advance. But the travel agent would come in useful now...

He thought a thought for Latias. "That's it? Routine patrol then, not specially out for me. We'll just need to stay low profile as we go past them"

Mac kept his hood up as he walked towards the travel agent's desk. People would still be on the lookout, but until the shift change at 5 o'clock, no one who'd seen his picture on the news would be working at the desks. He hoped.

He didn't need to wait in line, just walk straight to the desk, where a bored looking woman with too much makeup was staring at a screen. Until Mac arrived, at which point she put on her best fake smile. "How can I help?"

Mac acted like a stressed out professional type person, which was difficult to do when you're wearing a hoodie and backpack, not a suit and briefcase.

"Yeah, hi, thanks, listen, how quickly can you get me on a flight to Hong Kong? Only, my boss says there's a BIG crisis at our plant an-"

The teller sensed a rant was immanent and silenced him by putting her two palms forward and pushing them away from herself, the universal expression for 'calm down' . "That's perfectly okay mister, we'll see what we can do..."

She tapped a few buttons on her computer and Mac acted stressed out as much as possible, fidgeting with his watch and phone. Considering he was being hunted down by police, it wasn't difficult to act stressed.

"Okay we've got a non-stop to Hong Kong, China, departing in three quarters of an hour. Normally we don't sell tickets this close to the departure time but you look like you've had a bad day so I'll book you on that now if that's okay?"

Mac breathed a half real, half over dramatic sigh of relief. "Oh thank god yes, How much?"

"Four-two-zero". Mac wasn't surprised, it was late notice after all. And he had the money. Time to crank the stress into overload.

"Phew, yes that's fine, only, you see, I've barely got dressed, see, so I've got cash only, but no card, is that..."

"Sir that's okay so long as you have the money."

Mac threw his bag of his shoulder and dramatically counted out four hundred and twenty pounds worth of twenty pound notes. The woman blinked when he handed it over, but didn't say anything else. People rarely paid in cash, and it was about to be made illegal, but the poor guy looked a right state! She gave him the benefit of the doubt, printing off his boarding pass and handing it over in exchange for the money, which she moved into the safe at the back after telling Mac that "If you didn't have any hold luggage you can go right through to security over there..."

Mac walked towards the security hall as Latias followed slightly above, mystified by the whole process. Couldn't he just pay on the airplane?

Mac was surprised that he'd managed to buy a ticket for a flight that soon, but was still worrying about security. The trick was to not look suspicious and to not make it look like your trying not to look suspicious. Look confident, so much so that people don't bother challenging you, but not too confident, because security guards hate arrogance...

All the same, he picked up his mobile and wrote out a specifically worded text as he entered the security hall. He joined the queue for passport control, before tapping the cell number of the plastic box he'd left on the train into the 'to' field, then pressed enter.

The text message was sent through the air and reached the box in the train in five seconds. It took the box another five seconds to generate a reply, before sending another text back to Mac's phone that took another five seconds.

As mac waited in the rapidly dwindling queue to have his passport checked, he tried to look relaxed even though on the inside he was on full-panic. If the police had searched the train, they might have found the box. It was a possibility. Or the battery could have ran out. Or the signal dropped. Or any other number of things...

When he received the reply text fifteen seconds later, he felt a blast of concealed joy, holding off his mental celebration until he read the contents.

"GSM READY TO SEND. TX PASSWORD TO CONTINUE"

Mac bashed out an eight letter password but held off sending it until he was third in the queue. People were being put through the four booths at about one every ten seconds, so if Mac activated it when he was in third he should be the first person at one booth who's passport wouldn't scan.

The moment he was third, he pressed the SEND button, and waited fifteen seconds.

There was no alarm. No siren. No spontaneous failure of the power grid, sparks, red lights, PA announcements, or even a shout. What Mac did observe, was that the officer at the desk of the person who'd just been called up, was apologising to the person who's passport he was checking.

"Sorry, it won't scan. Just wait a sec, I'll try again... "

The next two people ahead of Mac both got called forward by two people who'd scanned passports before Mac had sent the system down. Mac stood where he was as the queue ground to a halt. None of anyone's passports were being scanned, the system being overloaded by requests from the computers Mac was controlling via the box.

"Er... Connection error? Time Out? What does this mean?"

"Database file exception? Not seen that before...just wait a second, I'll sort this..."

After about a minute of apologising by the passport checkers, a man in a suit burst through a door behind the passport checking booths, and unlocked the door to the first one, motioning the officer to listen. The officer listened intently, nodding his head. The man in the suit then did the same to the remaining three tellers, before disappearing back through the door, slamming it so hard it almost fell of its reinforced hinges.

The first passport officer started talking to the woman waiting to go through.

"Yes, er, sorry. Yes you can go." He motioned his hand for the woman to continue through to the bit where they scanned all of the hand luggage.

The woman blinked, surprised that her passport hadn't been scanned, before moving on.

Mac walked up to replace her space, slightly reassured by the knowledge that if security got to him, Latias would be a meter above, ready to help. What if the suited man was telling them to look out for him?

The customs officer spoke to him as he arrived, happy that he would - in a mere thirty-five minutes - be off his shift.

"Hello, sorry about the delay, bit of a technical issue. Can I have your passport, boarding pass and reason for travel?"

Mac slid his passport under the polycarbonate shield, a blast of ultimate terror coursing through him the entire time. "Travelling on urgent business".

The passport official's manager had told them to just verify the picture was the person they were letting through and note down the passport number by hand until the electronic clarification system started working again. He hunted for a pencil while explaining to Mac the situation.

"Ah right, sorry, I'll get you through as soon as possible, but the system's down so I need to just write a few travel details down..."

Mac could deal with that. So long as the list the man was making was checked after he got on the plane, there wouldn't be much they could do about it.

It was odd that the passports wouldn't scan at all though. It looked like he'd made the box bombard the main passport system while the airport was updating their list. So it'd corrupted their data too, and it wouldn't restore until the other server started working again.

The official started writing down Mac's details on a table he'd hurriedly drawn out.

'MAC SIMMONS, 38275372, HONG KONG, , 16:36.'

"Thank you Mac, you can go now..."

Mac showed no emotion as he took his passport back, but on the inside he was joyous. Of course, there was still the x-ray scanners to go through, but Mac - as always - had a work around for that.

Instead of joining the queue of people waiting to go through security, Latias watched from above as Mac walked across to a woman in a green jacket like the one Mac made her wear when they were near the red vans. It looked like she was just there to monitor the queues for security. To say he was meant to be sneaking through, he was making himself quite obvious. Latias listened in to his conversation with the lady.

"Can I help you?". Judging from her tone, Mac guessed the answer was probably no. But he acted irritable to just so they had some common ground.

"Ugh, sorry about this. My boss has called me out because of an issue with an AOG with a faulty 02 mod on a 700 that needs fixing ASAP. Looks like it's causing some SBI that's interfering with the EWAC. The guy at security said I needed to go through passport control before I can step onto the tarmac."

Mac did indeed service aircraft for a living, and had tried adding as much jargon in an attempt to confuse the woman. AOG was Aircraft On Ground, 700 was a make of jet engine, tarmac was the nickname for the actual runway area and 02 was the module number of the big fan on the front of the jet engine. All this was made up though, just a guise to get through the scanners without being stopped and the police finding the smoke grenades, sharp tools, electronics stuff etcetera...

The woman stared blankly like he hadn't even said anything. "And?"

"And I've got my bag of tools and technical drawings here. Which I can't take through the barriers because they're banned and one of the documents is restricted circulation, so I can't open the bag around anyone else. Now can you please direct me to the tarmac so I can fix this damn plane!"

This provoked the woman to actually do something, which was to be even more angry. "Listen here. It's almost the end of my shift, I don't need this and you don't look like no bright spark who makes planes for a living. Piss off and join the queue like everyone else."

In response, Mac pulled out his work pass from his pocket. It was always useful, he got discounts in shops and most of the time it was documentation enough to get on any plane under the premise of fixing it. He showed the woman, who raised her eyebrows.

"Here. Is this proof enough for you?"

The pass was simple enough, a square of plastic with a few details, but the most convincing factor was that it bore the name of the jet engine manufacturer most airlines used.

"And before you say it, no. It's jet engines." Mac couldn't stand it when they said they built ships or cars or planes. It was just the engines.

The woman reached for a walkie talkie, which wasn't what Mac wanted. He was hoping she'd just waive him through security. But if she was calling for security to remove him, he'd be stuck, and Latias' death ray thing wouldn't be useful with the amount of public that could be damaged. There were armed police near the scanners, and if his identity was discovered, the manure would hit the rotating object, and boy would it make a mess. A mostly bloody one, consisting mainly of his own bodily organs.

"Call for Karen?"

A few seconds of static, then a response, albeit a crackly one.

"Karen receiving."

"Hi, there's a kid here who says we've got an airplane that's broken and needs fixing. What do I do?"

Through the radio, Mac and Latias heard a crackly sigh.

"Does he have an ID?"

"Yes."

"Has he been through passport control?"

"Yes." The woman in the bib was starting to look a bit dumb.

"Well then put him through the scanners and then direct him to the tarmac."

Mac was getting sick of the three sided conversation, and gestured for the woman in the bib to let him speak through the radio. She shrugged and passed it to him, clearly bored with her responsibility.

"Hello...this is the person in question." He spoke unsurely. From here on in was not part of the plan. It was entirely ad-lib. The reply was not happy.

"Have you taken her radio?"

Mac decided the offensive would be the best position.

"No, she gave it me. Listen, I've had to drag myself from my night shift bed to fix this engine that desperately needs fixing," - he said desperately with the most sarcastic voice he could muster - "and I've got my own tools so your guys won't let me through security, because for some reason people think that you can hijack a plane with nose tweezers and a 12 mil bihexagonal ANSI torque wrench. You either let me through or get a bollocking from your supervisor when he realizes you let the only guy who could fix that plane go home." Mac thought he'd overdone it a bit, and waited anxiously for the response.

The radio crackled to life. "Okay. I've just asked Kev. He says they do have an AOG and that we can skip security for you so you can use your own tools"

Mac handed the radio back to the woman in the bib. The woman raised it to her lips and spoke. "Thanks Karen."

It wasn't really surprising that there was an aeroplane that needed fixing. Most airports have at least one, Mac had learnt. So it was just a case of persuading security that he was the one sent to fix it, and they'd let him through, most not even bothering to escorting him to said plane.

The bibbed woman was no different, and walked him past the line for security and - after a brief chat with the security people - let Mac past the scanners.

After that, she took him over to a door set in the wall, another steel one. She swiped a pass through a reader on the door and then pulled the handle, a cold blast of air hitting Mac as she did. The door led into a corridor, with no obvious way to the tarmac. There certainly weren't any signs, other than green FIRE EXIT ones. Not that Mac wanted to go to the tarmac, or the fire exit.

"It's down here, second left, then a right and there's a big door with a push bar. Just push that open and you'll be outside, it ain't alarmed or owt. Then you can just walk your way to the hanger. Can't miss it. Stay inside the blue and yellow lines, stay clear of ingestion zones, yadda yadda etcetera... "

Mac didn't have any other option, and walked into the corridor, saying "Thanks" to the woman even as she closed the door on him. Which it did, with a clang and a 'click' as the bolt locked it.

He turned around and faced the door. A voice in his head piped up, Latias'.

"Mac!? Where did you go? This door won't work! Mac? I didn't get through! MAC! Help!"

Latias could hear his thoughts, so he just thought what he needed to say and Latias would receive it, as long as she was listening.

"Calm down, and stop trying to open the door. It's locked from that side."

"How will you ge-"

"I said locked from THAT side. This side's got a button."

With that, Mac reached for a domed green button with "PUSH TO EXIT" written next to it. The area he was entering was less restricted than the one he was in, so it didn't need a card to open it. The magnet holding the door shut switched off, the bolt clicked open and Mac was able to push the door back out. Latias had already flown up, and was relieved to see him. She was invisible though, so Mac couldn't see the expression on her face.

"Oh!"

"Oh indeed. Now come on, the flight starts boarding in five minutes."

Latias didn't fully understand his sentence and had to mull it over. Boarding? She knew that when people got on a ship it was 'boarding', so it must be the same, just with an airplane. So if they could get on the airplane in five minutes...then there'd be nothing stopping her from getting back to Latios! And Bianca!

Latias felt a burst of happiness inside her, realisation that she was actually going to get home! And see her family! For the first time, she believed they were truly going to make it. 100 percent. But she had to contain her excitement, lest someone wonder why thin air was making loud cooing noises.

She resolved to make her first words when she got to Latios be something along the lines of "Will you be my mate?"

Mac, meanwhile, was dealing with the much less romantic task of trying to locate the departure gate.

London international had recently had another runway put in, which also messed around with the gate numbers. Logic dictated that 32A should be somewhere between 32 and 33. But for some reason it was on the direct opposite side of the terminal building. Mac was adamant not to ask for help or remove his blue hood. He was so close now to leaving the country, it would be a shame to be shot by some lowly airport security guard who got word from another last minute traveller who'd seen him on the news.

Mac eventually found the gate indicated on his ticket, to find a large queue for the check in desk, which had only just started accepting boarding passes.

The queue easily surpassed 100 people, and Mac got a blast of raw nerd excitement when he realized what plane they'd be flying on, queueing up next to a terminal window with a view to the behemoth that would take them half the way around the globe.

This was no budget-travel, four seats in a row, seven year old plane.

The A350 was a brand new airplane, with seating for up to 845 people and enough tech to make a nerd basicly die with awesome on the spot. Powered by 2 XWB turbo gas turbine jet engines (from the same company Mac worked for), the plane would take little over seven hours to fly them to Hong Kong. Mac could recite the engine specifications from heart, it was what he'd spent that last few years building. The top speed would be something like 500 miles an hour, and, thanks to a reduced air intake compressor ratio, the ride would be 30 percent quieter and more fuel efficient. Which meant no refuelling stops. Perfect.

Mac made a mental note of the airplane's tail number so he could find out the specifics of the exact engines he was flying on. Down to the name of the person who'd fitted the IP compressor blades. Odds were he knew them.

As the queue got down to it's last 50 people, Mac decided to remind Latias exactly what she had to do. He thought as loudly as possible to communicate with Latias without speaking.

"Latias? When I talk to the girl at that desk we're all waiting for, I want you to fly about a meter ahead of me, but not touching the person in front. Go down the corridor until you get to a place with some seats. Carry on past the seats and fly up the first set of stairs on your left. Then there should be a toilet. Go in there, transform, and get out. I'll be waiting on a seat about five rows after the toilet. I will get up and let you have the window seat, so when I stand up, you sit in the seat one on from where I was sat. I'll point too. Okay?"

As well as knowing about the engines, Mac also knew the exact internal locations of this particular plane, because he'd been to the factory where they were made.

He was worried that Latias had flown elsewhere or lost him in the crowd, but she had stayed following him in his hoodie that was a really attractive shade of Blue, and had received the entirety of his detailed instructions.

"Sure thing Mac! Is there food on the airplane?"

Mac sighed and almost laughed. It was like taking a small child on the airplane. Although it was a large, invisible, death ray of fire breathing dragon of a child.

"Yes, Latias. There will be plenty. No raw meat though".

"Oh..."

Eventually, with ten minutes to go before departure, it was Mac's turn to board.

"I'll keep instructing you, stay close" He thought to Latias as he smiled for the woman at the desk. He didn't need to fake this smile. He was genuinely happy.

The girl on the desk was young. Looked about Mac's age, but a lot prettier. But Mac didn't let himself be fooled. The check-in girls were actually smarter than most people (Mac didn't know of any other occupation that required controlling hundreds of humans to do things, without assistance. They also assisted the pilots with take-off speed calculations, which looked very difficult), and Mac respected them as such.

Mac hadn't put away his work pass, and the woman smiled back when she saw him.

"You build this plane?" She asked in a genuinely interested voice, as Mac gave her his boarding card.

"Well, just the engines." Mac said sheepishly, secretly entertained by the fact this intelligent, pretty girl was talking to him.

This was ruined by a thought from Latias. "Keep it in your trousers!"

Mac tried to ignore Latias, but when the voice appeared in your head, well, that was difficult to ignore. He blushed slightly but the girl was too professional to point it out.

"Oh that's soo smart! I bet you like that kind of techy thing. I'll have a word with the pilot, he might let you in the cockpit. You can board now". She handed back his boarding card and Mac set off down the flyover into the plane, with a grin on his face. Best escape from the police, ever.

"Keep going" He thought to Latias, as they reached the articulating curve of the passageway to the plane. A short walk later and they passed through the plane's exterior door and into the heated cabin. Where another pretty girl was there to direct him too his seat, which she did with a wave of her arm. "Down there, up the stairs on your left, Sir."

Mac did as he was told, 'verbally' ushering Latias along with his thoughts.

Latias saw so many interesting things. A child with a screen in his hand. Lots of buttons on the ceiling. Color changing lights, the view through a window into a rainbow like puddle.

But she was being ushered along too quick to appreciate anything. One thing was sure, this metal 'airplane' was definitely too big to fly. So what would actually take them home?

Latias saw the stairs at the same time that Mac had a thought for her to read. "There they are. Turn left and fly up them."

Latias did as she was told and found herself on the floor above the one she was in before. Directly in front of her was a door with 'WC' in white on a blue background.

"That's the door. Go in there, transform into that girl and walk back out. I'll be sat on the window seat five rows ahead. We'll swap places."

Luckily, the upper seating area was deserted, so no one noticed the toilet door seemingly open itself. Latias must have used psychic on the door, because Mac couldn't see how her claws could have got a grip on the circular handle.

Mac walked five rows ahead and sat down on the left hand side, one seat behind the emergency wing exit. Nothing Mac did was irrational, and he'd learnt that, aside from the hostess' seat, this was statistically one of the best places to sit in event of an emergency.

Just as Mac started to glare at the safety card in the pocket of the seat in front, the toilet door opened, and Latias - in her human form - stepped out, looked around for a bit, saw Mac, and started walking to him. He stood up and let her sit down next to the window, before sitting next to her.

The moment he sat down, he reached forwards for the airplane guide, telling Latias why he was so interested.

"One of my co-workers will have built the engines on this airplane. I've probably had something to do with it's construction at some point."

"I want to take a different airplane." Latias' telepathic voice worried in his head. Mac just laughed.

"They won't fail. When we get in the air, I'll bring up the database and we can get the live statistics on them. If there's something wrong with them, we'll be first to know". Using an Internet connection on board an airplane was highly illegal, even for satellite receivers. But Mac - as always - had a work around.

He turned to give Latias a reassuring smile, and was alarmed when her face was barely a centimetre away from his. Latias remained still, like it was completely normal for her to be so close.

Mac spoke outloud, there wasn't anyone but Latias to hear him.

"Er... Latias... Personal space?"

Latias blinked before moving her head slightly further away. She apologised in Mac's head.

"Sorry. Bianca says I've got to stop doing that too. It's because nothing smells as strong in her form as it does mine, so I was leaning in to smell better."

"Okay. So what do I smell like now? Wait...'her form'? What do you mean by that?"

Latias tried to chuckle, but it didn't work. She would have fun teasing Mac, pretending to be Bianca, when they got to the garden. To avoid ruining that, she only answered his first question.

"Male. And worry. You smell like a worried male. I'd be able to say more in my normal form - as you know - but my nose isn't as good as I am now."

Mac gave knowing nod, secretly wondering what worry smelt like, and if Latias was smelling everything she went near. It made sense, but still. For something that could communicate in English, it seemed awfully... Simple...

* * *

Once again, Kudos and danka to Obiten for doing the editing on this chapter!


	7. Chapter 7

Eventually the doors were locked, and the plane started to taxi to the runway, albeit very slowly. Latias was fully engrossed by the pretty flight attendant, who was demonstrating the correct use of a seat belt. While the hostess was bored to the point of cynicism, Latias was intrigued into all the workings of the belt.

"This belt works like any other seat belt, and if you struggle to operate it, you probably shouldn't be in public on your own."

Latias thought that was a bit mean, she'd never used a belt before, and she was on the other side of the world right now! But on the other hand, the girl looked like she'd said the same lines over and over and it wasn't like the upstairs was exactly packed. Latias had counted 20 people, even the though the upstairs was designed for two hundred. Latias guessed she was allowed to be a little sarcastic.

"If you are one of those people, the following guide may assist in buckling, tightening and unbuckling the belt. Please have your crayons ready should you wish to take notes."

Mac watched as Latias face visibly lit up when she realised someone was actually going to tell her how to use the belt. He chuckled. She WAS just like a small child.

"Pick up the belt with each half in one hand. Place the metal tab on your right into the holder on your left. Push the two together until you hear a click, like so." The girl demonstrated with a detached belt of her own, and Latias copied, mirroring the moves as well as she could. When it clicked, her grin widened. Easy. She'd never needed a belt before, and probably never would again, but learning this simple thing left her happy. If she was in her normal form, she would have probably laughed at the simplicity, after celebrating completing the task with an air-roll or something. Then Latios would calm her down, all the while trying to imitate the clicking noise of the belt...that would have been nice...to learn it with him...

"To adjust, pull the strap on your right until the belt is tight enough to restrict unintentional movement but not so that it restricts breathing or blood flow."

Again, Latias copied. But this time, she didn't quite manage, and over tightened the belt. Worst of all, she'd left one hand underneath the belt, so only her right arm was free to undo it. Which did not appear to be as simple as doing it up did. There was the word 'Open' stamped on it, but pressing that did nothing. With her free hand she wiggled Mac's shoulder to get his attention before pointing at the belt buckle.

Mac rolled his eyes and helped Latias with the belt, pulling the buckle open and freeing her. She showed her thanks by rubbing her head against his shoulder, a gesture that seemed effective in both forms. That's not to say it looked normal in her human form.

After the safety talk - and Latias being distracted by the shiny belt and yellow demonstration life jacket multiple times - the hostess sat down in her seat and a voice appeared in the cabin from speakers in the ceiling.

While everyone else let their eyes wander during the announcement, Latias was looking everywhere for the source of the sound, eventually staring up at the speaker in the roof above her.

"This is your captain speaking. We've just been cleared for takeoff and should be in the air in about five minutes, which is a first at this place. I think they're having trouble with the passport systems, though, so we've been messed around a bit with the crew. With you today is a measly crew of eight hostesses, Plus me, Sev, and your co-pilot, Gaz, to make all of your hundred forty journeys as pleasant as possible. Please double check you have your seat belt tightened and your luggage stowed, and any electronics in flight mode for the duration of the flight, and off during takeoff. Weather for the destination isn't great I'm afraid, crosswinds and light smattering of rain, though that'll probably clear up by the time we get there. I'd like to thank you all for flying with us, I hope you enjoy the flight." with a 'click', the message ended.

Mac turned to grin at Latias and she smiled back. They'd done it! They'd actually done it! Nothing could stop them now! If Mac was jubilant, Latias was in a state of absolute pleasure.

Home...she was finally going to get there. Think of all the stories she could tell Latios about! And Bianca would be amazed!

Mac rested his hands on the arms of his chair and lent back against his seat, ready for the blast of g-force as the plane would accelerate from about 30 to 300 miles an hour in under a mile and a half of runway. Latias realised it would probably be a good idea to copy.

He turned his head to the right, past Latias, in time to see the fan blades of the jet engines on the wing start to rotate faster, as a whine started to fill the aircraft. A few seconds later, a rumbling noise started to fade in as the wheels thundered down the runway. Latias would probably freak out, but Mac paused and had the one last moment to himself. For once, he wasn't looking at the jet engine, or any of the aircraft's neat technology. He was looking at the horizon, with the green grass extending a short way before the London skyline started to peek over some low buildings, black shadows on a red skyline.

All he'd ever done, everything he'd ever achieved, almost every place he'd ever been, everyone he'd ever met, friends, family, co-workers, associates, trolley ladies...all of them were on this island, Great Britain, this same rock he was staring at right now, starting to whiz past the window. The speed was alarming. Not just the immediate speed of the airplane, but the speed of which he was giving up all of his life. To help Latias get home. To start a new life in a place that seemed...impossible. That wasn't quite the word Mac wanted to use. He'd use magical, except that seemed too far fetched. Even if it wasn't.

Either way, he was taking his last look at the life he knew. It was saddening, to an extent. He was essentially scrapping the past eighteen years of his life. All those years in school meant nothing, all those friendly relationships. He doubted 'Hoenn' would accept a BTEC in Spanish from a place that they didn't even think existed. And there wouldn't be any going back to meet any of his friends.

As Mac was taking his last look at his homeland, Latias was sat in her seat, starting to get worried. Her body was telling her she was accelerating fast, but she wasn't flying anywhere. And the noise was getting scary. And the airplane looked heavy. If it hit something at this speed, a seat belt wouldn't stop her organs from disintegrating against her insides. And the cabin was very cramped. Even if she had time to, finding space to transform would be difficult. The toilet was cramped enough as it was.

The pitch of the engines changed noticeably and Latias felt her body get pushed against the seat. In a blast of panic, she grabbed the nearest stable object and did what she always did when she was scared, which was to force her head into said object as hard as possible.

In her dragon form, this would have worked better. But unfortunately, as Mac was about to discover, the human face is rather flat, unlike the dragon face, which is sloped.

Instead of Latias wedging her head under Mac's arm, He felt a force starting to push his arm off the seat.

"You okay?"

A tiny voice responded in his head, but Latias didn't lift her head from his arm. "No. Too loud. Very fast. Danger. Want to go home. Scary. Want Latios. "

Mac realised just how spooked the takeoff was making Latias, but he had to keep her calm. They were seconds from actual lift off, so he did what he thought would work best, which was move his arm to allow Latias to tuck her head under it, which she did, before moving the arm back, pressing it on her ears to dampen the noise.

Latias liked this. It was quieter. And although he didn't look it, Mac was strong enough to make her feel secure. Not as comforting as Latios was, not by a long way. But safer.

A few seconds later, the rumbling noise stopped and the ride felt smoother.

With a roar, the last wheel of the landing gear on the airplane left the tarmac and the Airbus thundered into the sky, just another blip on the radar to be managed and filtered though international airspace.

The seat belt light blinked off, but neither Latias or Mac removed them. Mac because there wasn't a need to, Latias because she wasn't aware she was allowed to. And because she still wasn't 100 percent sure how the belt worked, really.

The moment the light went off, Mac grabbed his bag and pulled out his laptop and a large black box with a variety of antennas on the top. The device ran off batteries, so Mac just pressed a few buttons on the side and dropped it back in the bag.

The box let Mac get online anywhere in the world via a satellite relay. It spoke to his phone and laptop via a special frequency designated specifically not to interfere with aircraft. It wasn't a commercial product, he'd made the last bit himself. But it'd been certified, so all he did when someone asked what he was doing was point to the sticker on the side.

Mac unfolded the laptop and tapped on a few buttons while Latias stared out of the window at the darkening world below her.

Whatever place she was leaving, it wasn't anything like Alto Mare. There were no canals, the buildings were - mostly - smaller, and the people were a lot more...violent. Only one person had tried shooting her in Alto Mare, and that was a one off. Admittedly it resulted in her being kidnapped, but...

She was glad she was leaving.

"Latias?" Mac suddenly asked her, snapping her out of her trance. She turned to look at him, and saw that he had the laptop half-open, looking a inquisitively at her. Like the response to his question was required for the laptop to work, or something else of use.

He took her turning her head as a need to continue.

"Where exactly are you from? I know WHERE, but how exactly did the military manage to kidnap you?"

Latias blinked. Odd time for a question like that, but a question nonetheless. Although she didn't really want to relive the answer. "It's a bit of a long story."

"Well then give me the short version. How did the military manage to catch you and put you in that facility?"

"You keep calling them the military. They aren't, they're a group of pokemon thieves we call 'Team Rocket'."

"But it wasn't! It was the government of the country I lived in!"

"Well, whoever they were, I was eating in the garden with my friends and the next thing I knew they'd got me in the spider-like thing. I don't like spiders." Latias paused to shudder at the memory.

"And then you ended up in England?" Mac's tone made it obvious that he knew bits were missing.

"Don't interrupt! So the spider thing managed to cage me."

"Cage you?! How? Couldn't you just fly away?"

"STOP INTERRUPTING! And no, because I was trying to move Latios because team Rocket had poisoned him. Anyway, so this woman shot me with this dart thingy and everything went wobbly. I can remember a helicopter though."

"I see."

"And then can't remember anything until I woke up in the same place you rescued me from. I was in the same cage and everything"

Mac waited for her to say more, but clearly she's shortened the story too much and that was all there was to say. He tried to dig deeper.

"Hmm... So, If you don't mind me asking, what did they do to you there?"

"Well...nothing, really. There weren't any other pokemon that I could smell. The food they gave me was horrible and the cage was only just big enough for my wings. But if your thinking about doing tests or measuring or stuff, nothing. I tried escaping twice, but the cage shocked me and turned cold, so I had to stop. What took you so long to rescue me anyway?"

Mac looked offended.

"Hey! I didn't even know you existed until last night! I didn't plan on any sort of rescue thing!"

"Oh..." Latias changed her appearance to look downcast. Mac decided to apologise.

"Sorry, it's just, this whole 'pokemon' thing is completely bizzare. I'd planned for a breaking-and-entering, not a full scale seek-and-return. I'd actually broken in to see what was there and possibly nick some of it. But now your here, I'm glad I've found you. I can't wait to see what your home looks like, it'll certainly be better than a place where people are trying to kill me!"

Latias nodded.

"It is! Sunny, lots of water, the people are friendly. I don't want to tell you any more and ruin it for you."

Mac nodded and leaned back in his seat. It looked like he was about to type out a book, but his hands stayed off the keyboard as he asked another question.

"So. I know you're a dragon, like, but...what exactly are you? Where did you come from? Originally, of course. You didn't just pop into existence". The voice was inquisitive.

Silently, in her thoughts, Latias wished SHE knew the answer.

"It's a very long story." Latias psychiced into Mac's head. It was a long story. She was nearly one hundred years old, and a lot of stuff had happened in that time.

"Well, we've got nine hours of sitting down. I think there's time. I could do with a story." He verbally replied with a smile.

Latias thought for a moment. What Mac wanted was a distraction from what was happening now, which is why he asked her such a complex question. He didn't want to think about all the stuff he was leaving.

Suddenly, an idea cropped into her head that would make Mac forget all about his current situation. Something that would blow his mind. Literally.

"How about I show you?" She quizzed him, adding a mystical tone to the thought.

"Show me? Don't tell me you've got pictures!"

"No. I can show you in your mind. Like a dream."

Mac's face faltered, trying to digest what she was 'saying'. She could alter his dreams?

"Wouldn't I need to be asleep?"

"Well kind of. But that's part of the whole thing. I make you sleep." She wasn't going to sight-share. That was boring. If she could put him into a lucid dreaming state, well, he'd forget all of his troubles.

Mac was curious and worried at the same time. What if he ended up in a coma? Then again, he'd done a lot of dangerous things in the past day, so perhaps a sleep was deserved.

"Well..okay then. If it's safe...what do I do?"

"Just sit back. And relax..."

As soon as the psychic message ended, his vision began to dim around the edges, and his back started to slump against the seat.

"Don't panic...you're fine... ". The pleasant voice appeared in his consciousness as clear as day, as his surroundings started to blur, become muffled and defocus. The whine of the jet engines on the airplane dulled, like it was becoming surrounded with pillows, until it faded away to nothing. Far off, he felt the sensation of the laptop sliding off his lap, but all his muscles had gone limp, and he couldn't really seem bothered to try and even move his legs out of the way. This trance-state was just...blissful.

Reality had faded over completely, replaced with an utterly blank entity, void of everything. Mac couldn't feel his body, not anything. The only sense that seemed to be responding was hearing, and he could hear Latias cooing. Not in the seat next to him, that was long gone with the rest of the airplane. He could hear her projecting her coos into his head. The weird bit was that he could understand them. Not translate. But understand. As he was a native speaker and he had spoken lati his entire life.

"Are you okay?" Latias asked him in the dreamworld. "You can speak?"

Mac tried speaking. "Err...yeah. Yeah. I can speak. Can you hear?" His 'voice' was in English. But that made him think, and he couldn't help but ask Latias.

"What do we look like to the people on the plane? And who's brain is this in?"

"We look like we're asleep. And I'm figuring this out in my brain, and then just telling yours what it needs to know. You can make the rest of this world up. Try it. Think of somewhere."

Mac thought, hard. Around him, parts of the place he was thinking about started to fade into the unreal reality.

"Can you see this?" He asked.

"If I want. This is your mind space, I can just drop in on it."

"So can I..." The disembodied Latias voice cut him off.

"No. You can't look at my mind space. It's too complex. This kind of thing is one way. I can send thoughts for you to look at, and I can peek at yours without you sending them, but you can't send yours or peek at mine. You have to be psychic to do that."

Mac was still overwhelmed. His dream body was looking around the living room at his house, wondering that if his brain was capable of reconstructing this room, what humans were missing out on by way of entertainment systems? If this dragon could make him think things and have them appear in his head...well...

Fibre optic broadband seemed a lot less impressive all of a sudden.

"Well...whenever you're ready, I can show you my memory." the disembodied lati voice coo'd. Mac wanted to try one last thing. He thought of Latias and her dragon form appeared infront of him in the faux living room. The voice seemed less disembodied once Mac thought about associating it in his head.

Latias saw this and was impressed. Most humans generally did nothing for the first few minutes, awed by the surroundings. But Mac had immediately started recalling places, moving around, and even associating psychic stimulus.

"Cool." He said, leaning forward to pat the imaginary Latias on the head. Which made it make cooing noises and happy faces, exactly as Mac expected it/her to. Because, of course, anything he expected would happen. It was his 'dream' after all. Even his sub-conscious was manipulating the environment.

"Sorry. I wanted to see if that would work." Mac apologised to the waiting Latias. She shrugged it off, but made the vision of herself in Mac's brain disintegrate, just to help him focus.

"No problem. Anyway, you wanted to know where I came from?"

"Yeah. Go for it."

The dreamscape faded and morphed, like Mac was being twisted from one place to another. The place he was stepping into was colder and smelled like freshly cut grass.

Latias had taken him to the garden. Not how she'd seen it at the time, but from his own perspective, with the garden fully recreated from more recent memories.

Mac looked around. On the floor, two paces ahead, were two dragons. One was like Latias, just a lot smaller. A quarter of her current size, easily.

She was curled up, head hidden under her wing, next to another dragon that looked exactly like her, but blue. So the blue one was her brother? Either way, he was curled up with his head under his wing, exactly the same as Latias.

Mac could see various white/yellowy fragments on the ground, like a plate had been smashed on the ground and spread out around the sleeping pair.

"Pick one up!" Latias voice - which was still inside Mac's head - urged.

Mac went over to the closest piece and picked it up. Obviously, he didn't 'actually' pick it up. He thought about looking at it and it appeared in front of him.

It was very thin, less than a millimetre, and looked really fragile, like an egg shell. The colour and texture was like an egg too, with a smooth inside and a rougher outside.

The 'outside' of this 'shell' was patterned too - a slightly yellow tinted colour with a red corner at the edge where it looked like a hollowed out red triangle pattern had been, but it was broken and the full picture wasn't clear.

"This feels like an egg!" Mac said outloud, to the dream world. Latias replied in his head, her coo sounding like it was her version of whispering.

"That's because it is..."

Mac paused, thinking long and hard about what Latias had just projected.

"You...this is when you were born?"

"Hatched. Most pokemon come from eggs, my brother and I included."

"But the shell is broken. Shouldn't you be inside it?"

"Er...how would I have remembered that bit?"

"Oh yeah. Sorry. So what happened next?"

"Watch."

Mac watched the two twins as Latias started recalling the memory. She'd only remembered a few things from the time, but what she didn't know then she'd put in later. So right now Mac could go around the entirety of the garden, even though Latias could only remember a tree and a lake from the original memory.

She had, however, remembered everything that she and Latios had said. Tried to say.

The Latias on the grass started to stir, it's wings twitching and fins on the back suddenly extending out. Next, the neck started to straighten out, untucking the head from the wing. She'd kept her eyes closed though for a few more seconds afterwards though. Eventually, they opened, the left one first, followed closely by the second.

The fist few noises she made were nonsense, random garbled half-coos. In a fit of panic, Latias ducked her head back under her wing.

As Latias started to whimper underneath her own wing, the blue dragon also started to stir, possibly woken by the noise.

He woke up in much the same way as Latias, except when he removed his head from under his wing, his eyes were open. The same string of unintelligible cooing noises that Latias made were repeated as Latios tried to use his vocal chords. His reaction to not being able to speak was different though. Instead of panicking, he gave up with speech and looked around at the surroundings.

Mac moved around for a closer look as Latios inspected himself, nudging his wings with his snout and watching the surprised look on his face when he felt a touch sensation in them.

With a jerk movement, the wing Latios nudged, moved. He raised an eye and looked surprised, as the thought transposed itself across into Mac's mind.

"I have wings?"

At this point, Mac somehow managed to interrupt the memory, making it jarr and grind to a halt.

"Latias, how come I know what Latios is doing? And thinking? I thought this was your memory? How can I even understand you now, you're only cooing?" - All very good questions in Mac's opinion.

The Latias in his head made a grunting noise.

"Well, me and my brother both watched each other's memories - like your doing now - so we both know what the other was doing. And you can understand me because thoughts are actually just 'notions' with a language attached. Me and you can think the same thing and we'll have the same 'notion', just different 'thoughts' since my notion is in lati and yours is in English. So this whole memory, the scenery and everything, is just a notion. I think of it, and send it to you, and your brain takes it and makes it a thought by attaching language. I can think of that tall tree and it be just a notion, but it won't make sense to you until you attach the English language to it."

"Okay. I get that...I think." There was a pause.

"So this is just after you and Latios hatched?"

"Yes."

"So you're twins?"

"Most likely."

"Right. Carry on."

The memory resumed.

Latios looked inquisitively at his other wing, and, after a look of concentration, moved it up and down, tracking it with his eyes as the limb moved up and down in response to a newly created neural pathway. Think this, and that moves.

Mac jumped as Latios suddenly and unexpectedly raised his neck all the way up, but kept his body on the ground. By the look of his head, Mac could see that Latios was sniffing the air, angling his snout to get the best scent he could.

After sniffing the air, he turned his head and looked at Latias.

The look of surprise was comic, in Mac's opinion. But why was he surprised?

"Red...red...same...wings. Wings the same. Wings red...". His thoughts echoed on Mac's head, and it made Mac chuckle. Latios was shocked because there was something exactly like him, just a different colour.

Apprehensive, he jabbed the curve in Latias neck where she'd tucked her head back under her wing with his snout.

Latias went from shaking under her wing to dead still.

"I thought it was a predator coming to eat me." Latias explained to Mac, who looked confused as to her actions.

Mac carried on watching, as Latios nudged her again, with more force.

"Red?" It was the first word Latios actually spoke properly.

Latias peeked her head out from under her wing, letting one eye see Latios.

"Blue?" It was also Latias' first word. Their first words were the colours of their twin. Who was now on the other side of the world.

Mac wasn't an emotional person. In fact, he'd danced around the apple store on the day Steve Jobs died, claiming that the PC had once and for all beaten him. He'd laughed when the dog died in 'Marley and Me' . And when his best friend broke up with his girlfriend, he cheered him up by setting the friend's hair on fire. But this emotional scene was making him tear up. Well, the dream version of him. The memory kept going.

Latias peeked the rest of her head out from under the wing, looking at the discoloured version of herself with both eyes.

"The same?" He asked her, tilting his head to indicate the question, slowly figuring out the simple usage of the language in relation to his vocal chords.

Latias didn't understand though, and Latios jabbed her wing with his snout.

"Wings. The same. Red. Blue. Can move?" The sentences weren't much, but considering they'd been alive less than twenty minutes, Mac was astounded.

Latios moved both his wings to highlight the point, looking behind him to check they were actually moving.

Latias reacted the same to Latios moving his wings as he did when he found out.

"I can move?"

Before Latios could confirm it, she was looking at her own wings, trying to get them to move under her own thought.

"But they wouldn't..." Latias mumbled in Mac's head. "Latios had to help me."

In the memory, Mac saw as Latios lifted Latias' wings up with his snout, then let them drop under gravity.

"Broken. Not move". He muttered, a long and sad sounding coo.

Suddenly, Latias' wing twitched and Latios became ecstatic.

"NOT BROKEN! CAN MOVE! LIKE ME! LIKE ME!"

Slowly, Latias started to raise and lower the wing without Latios' help. The two of them laid down and watched as the wing would go up, then down, then tilt, then go forwards and backwards. Eventually, Latias let out a long and happy cry, before resting the wing on the ground and waiting for a few seconds, unsure of the next thing to do after popping into existence.

Latias turned her neck to face Latios and smiled at him. Both of them simultaneously started moving their wings up and down, laughing and cooing and smiling as they stared at the other twins wing move around.

"Aww...wait a minute" Mac paused the memory in his head.

"Yes." Latias knew what the next question was, she could already sense it.

"So...you must have had a mother Latias and a father Latios, if I've got this right. Why aren't they there?"

The question was asked casually; perhaps they were meant to hatch alone or something? So Mac was surprised when the dreamscape warped, shifted and disintegrated around him. In seconds, Mac was enveloped by darkness.

A few seconds later, Mac jolted as he felt himself 'fall' into his body. That in itself was a surreal experience. But Mac was concerned for Latias more, why had she broken the psychic link or whatever it was?

* * *

Before we go on, I'd jut like to mourn the passing of my good friend, common decency. He was a good friend, but was brutally murdered by a woman who goes by the name of farla, a person who I considered a friend. While my back was turned, he was blogged to dea... *sniggers*. Sorry, I couldn't keep that going.

So, there's this girl called farla who I considered a useful guide, but quickly turned nasty, and even ended up blogging all about how much she doesn't like me! Pathetic, right? Anyway, if you fancy some entertainment, head on down to farla's blog and check it out. According to her, I'm "batshit crazy", which I'm assuming is a compliment. I'm flattered to have featured in this blog which has over THREE visitors EVERY DAY! ROUND OF APPLAUSE PEOPLE! GO ME!

Don't let that bother you though, read and review this chapter! THAT'S AN ORDER, SERGEANT!


	8. Chapter 8

He looked to his right and saw Latias, cradling her head in her hands, shoulders shaking. Like she was crying.

"Are you crying?" Mac asked. It looked like she was laughing, in some ways.

The voice replied in his head, in English.

"No. I can't. No tears in this form." It sounded like she was sulking.

"Oh. But...why do you want to? Is everything alright?". Mac supposed that she could be upset because she was on the other side of the planet to her family. But it was a bit of a delayed reaction if that was the case.

Latias appreciated Mac's concern, but on the other hand, she just wanted him to shut up and find out the whole 'missing parents' thing when they got to Alto Mare.

"It's...it's okay...listen...I'll tell you later."

"Only if you promise not to be upset until then." Mac responded. To everyone else, it probably looked like he was talking to himself. But there wasn't really anyone close enough to hear him properly anyway.

"Okay." the sulky voice said, and a second later she brightened up and - because she couldn't cry - her face looked radiant again. Mac - being hopeless - was convinced.

Mac checked his watch. He'd been asleep for nearly an hour!

"Yeah, your brain wasn't quick enough to do things in real time, like mine can. So it took longer to picture the scene than it would normally, so we were asleep for 3 times longer than what it felt like because your brain is 3 times slower than it needed to be." Latias telepathed, picking up the thought and explaining it without prompt.

"Oh..." Mac sighed. He always considered himself as above average intellect, so he was disappointed when Latias told him that he was slow.

But the downer didn't last long, because not five minutes later, the attendant who'd let them on the plane walked up the isle to him.

"You're awake now then?" She asked in a friendly tone, like she'd known him her entire life. Mac thought.

"Yep, very comfy seats if I must say." He replied, smiling.

"The two of you looked so cute together, I take it this is your girlfriend?" She asked.

Mac didn't know why she was so interested, perhaps she was just getting friendly before trying to sell them some overpriced food. But he answered all the same.

"No, she's my business partner. Assistant. We're going to China to do some maintenance work on an airplane and she does all the paperwork while I fix it."

Latias nodded in agreement on the outside, but on the inside she telepathed Mac. "What happened to boyfriend and girlfriend?"

Not for the first time, Mac ignored, her as the hostess carried on.

"Well she's a quiet one. Anyway, while you were asleep the pilot said you could come up to the cockpit since you helped build the engines. If you'd like to follow me?" She waved with a hand and Mac gladly obliged, standing up and pulling Latias with him.

As they walked to the front of the plane, Latias continued to rile him.

"Eyes up Mac. I may not be male or human, but I know what they like..."

Mac sent a thourght back.

"Hey! I wasn't staring! And anyway, what's it to you if I did?"

There wasn't any response, so whether Latias had given up or not got his message, Mac didn't know.

The attendant walked up to a door at the front of the plane, before typing in a code and holding a pass up to the keypad. "Hiya Kev, got two guests for you. Engineers." she spoke, and Latias was considerably confused by her seemingly talking to a door. Mac new better.

In the war against terrorism, the airline industry was doing all it could to prevent passengers from getting to pilots. The latest system was this three pass security. Essentially, anyone wishing to get access to the cockpit while the engines were started would need the pass and a key code. If the two were fine, it opened a comms link to the pilots, who could then listen to the reason for the person to enter. If they didn't recognise it or they didn't want anyone getting in, they would ignore it and not press the button to open the door.

As well as that, the pilots also had hidden buttons that allowed them to fill the cockpit with tear gas. Anyone not wearing one of the two pilots oxygen masks when that went off would be incapacitated almost immediately.

But in this case, the pilots were happy to have guests in the cockpit. Especially when they helped build the plane. If it wasn't for these guys, they wouldn't have a job.

And so the door popped open, allowing the assistant, Mac and Latias into the flight deck of the aircraft.

"So who do we have here?" The pilot - Sev - looked around in his seat.

He was a plump man in his thirties, and looked - for all intents and purposes - fresh out of the shower. Mac panicked when he realised that Sev or the copilot would have just come on shift and so could have seen him on the news. But even if he did recognise him, it wasn't like he was going to turn the plane around now they were an hour into the flight. He had plausible deniability of his existence on the plane after all.

Even so, Mac was horrified when the pilot interrupted before he could answer.

"You look familiar... err..."

Mac acted quickly, and suggested alternative places where the pilot could have seen him.

"You too...did you go to the first display of this bird?" By bird, he meant plane. Pilot lingo.

"Yes I did...OH THAT'S IT! I saw you there! You were..."

"Showcasing the engines". That part was true.

"Yeah, that's it. Well fancy that, small world eh? So I guess you made the powerhouses for this then?"

As the two men chatted, Latias stood just behind Mac, next to the flight attendant. The room they were in was small, and there were buttons everywhere. On the walls, on the door - which had closed after them - even the ceiling. What surface wasn't a button was a light, and various lights were flashing with no foreseeable reason or order. At the front of the room were windows looking outwards, though nothing was to be seen out of them but blackness.

The flight attendant turned around and, seeing Latias' confused face, tried starting up a conversation, clearly not thrilled by the men's technology-based talks.

"This stuff confuses me too, eh?"

Latias turned to look at her and nodded. The attendant continued to look at her like she was expecting more, until she remembered.

"Oh yeah, sorry, you're a mute..." Between the girls, there was an awkward silence. The men continued to ramble.

"So, you enjoy working with him?" The attendant asked to clear the silence. It was a very deliberately put yes/no question.

Latias nodded again, more enthusiastically. She did enjoy being with Mac. Even if he was distracted by everything. Then again, she wasn't exactly queen of the focused either.

Feeling a need to participate in the conversation, Latias pointed to the pilot and tilted her head, letting the attendant invent her own question for this action. Along the lines of 'Do you enjoy working with him?'

"Those? Those are circuit breakers. They stop things on the plane from breaking if something goes wrong. Why?"

The attendant was looking at a row of buttons behind the pilots chair, not the pilot himself.

Latias shrugged her shoulders.

"No reason? Ah right..."

The silence in-between the girls resumed.

Meanwhile, both pilots and Mac were becoming positively chummy.

"...so what would you do if I flicked this switch?" The copilot asked, hovering his finger over a switch with a red cover over the top.

Mac responded in a brisk manner, like he was Sherlock Holmes explaining the puzzle to his nemesis. Complete with pointing out switches and buttons on the panel mounted on the ceiling of the cockpit.

"Well, I'd press this one to activate the inverter from the other three engines, then deactivate the inverter on the one you just shutdown...no, actually. Since the turbines will still be spinning round, I don't need to do that. I can just introduce a fuel flow to the combustor with this button and this lever and then ignite with...this one."

The pilots both looked impressed, much to Mac's hidden delight.

"He certainly knows this stuff. Tell us then, how fast is engine three going?"

Mac just laughed.

"Which bit of engine 3?"

"Err...there's more than one bit?" The pilot asked, confused. They weren't taught, or required to learn, that the engine actually had three sets of fan (or compressor) blades.

"Yep. LP, IP, HP. Take your pick." Mac said, pulling out his phone from his pocket. The pilots didn't seem to care about the phone.

"Oh right...I'm gonna say...IP..."

Latias rolled her eyes. She was sure Latios would enjoy this kind of thing, but she was finding it positively boring. Sure there were loads of colourful lights, which were slightly interesting. But she was hungry, and just wanted to get home to Latios.

She wondered what he was doing right now.

* * *

**Alto Mare, Hoenn, North Korea, Earth**  
**Local Time and Date Unknown.**

Bianca approached Latios, with a great degree of caution. By the looks of it, he'd been eating raw meat non-stop for the past two weeks, she didn't have to guts to go out and feed him. She didn't want to be on the menu.

Latios was laid on his side, resting the majority of his bulk on his right wing, with the other wing lazily folded infront of him, with the tip just resting on the ground. His head was sideways and still looking down his snout at the fish that he hadn't let out of his sight. Despite it being outside in plain sight, it hadn't rotted or been eaten. Bianca suspected that was something to do with Latios actively protecting it. With force. As a possible lure for other pokemon, or in his mind, food.

He'd reverted back to a wild state - instinctive hunting, not much bathing, and sleeping whilst also staying alert to the outside world. Bianca knew his current diet wasn't good, even at a wild-animal level. Without Latias to collect berries for him, he'd be lacking in so much vitamins and other rather essential things. As for Latias, well. She could catch her own meat, but she only ever did it with Latios nearby, from what Bianca could understand. If Latias wasn't getting the meat she needed, she'd grow really weak, really quickly. Especially while as she was in season.

It was killing her, seeing him like this, thinking about him like this. Three weeks ago, she'd have bounded up to him and happily tugged on his tail fins.

Now she was approaching as slowly and as calmly as possible to avoid him eating her.

Latios saw the girl, but it took him a second to remember. Ever since Latias had gone, he'd focused only on her. What she smelt like. Sounded like. Felt like...he'd forgotten everything else. Then he saw the girl. Bianca. Kind, loving, funny...was that her?

Latias used to change into Bianca. And you'd only be able to tell by sight by who was wearing the beret. So they'd swap the beret around. Of course, she'd never fooled him. She smelt of dragon regardless of what she looked like.

Bianca saw his eyes dart towards her and flinched, but it was clear Latios had no intention of getting up. Aside from moving his eyes, he didn't make any attempt to interact with her. She tried to change that.

"Latios? It's me?"

Latios did nothing, which did have Bianca worried. He normally pricked his ears up when he heard his name at very least. It was almost instinct. But he didn't do anything this time.

She made the clicking noise with her tongue that always got their attention.

"It's nearly winter, Latios. You don't like that, do you? Snow? You hate snow. Latias wouldn't want you to freeze either. Please come inside? You can go straight to your room?"

Latios remained motionless.

This was worrying Bianca. Had he gone deaf?

"Latios, I know you're upset. But could you at least let me know that you're okay? Not OKAY, obviously. But at least that your not injured? Please?"

Latios, after a pause, finally responded. It wasn't much, but Bianca noted him make a huffing noise; breathing in deeply and then exhaling noisily. It was the noise he normally made when he was frustrated. That was before Latias went missing.

"I can hear you." The voice appearing in Bianca's head made her want to squeal with delight, she hadn't heard it in that long. Except even his psychic voice sounded defeated.

"Oh good! Are you hurt?"

Latios considered this. Yes, he was hurt. While he was looking for Latias he'd incurred many injuries, chiefly the rather large cut on the side he was now laying on. He couldn't remember what had caused it, but he'd tried licking it clean so many times and it hadn't done anything. What good would Bianca do?

Instead of psychicing, Latios just gave out a negative-sounding coo. That was all she needed to know, really.

"Oh, okay..." She didn't believe him. Just from where she was sitting she could see raw patches on his down and several feathers missing. They'd grow back, but not for a while.

A silence lapsed between the two. Bianca wasn't sure what else to say, but at the same time, she wanted to say something. Anything to keep him from staying silent. She'd got him to talk, she didn't want him to stop now just for lack of a conversation topic.

"Latios? We could watch TV? I've got a film? You'd like it. It's called 'How to train your dragon'?" The title had seemed apt when she'd got the disk, but when it came to actually watching it, she couldn't face it without having company. Lorenzo was at work and Latias was, well...not here.

And now she'd tried to ask Latios - the apparently morbidly depressed dragon - if he wanted to watch it with her, it just sounded stupidly childish and happy, even if nothing could be further from the truth.

The silence extended further.

"Bianca? Do you miss Jay?" The question was so sudden and unexpected, Bianca would have missed it if it wasn't beamed directly to her brain.

She wondered why he'd asked her. There was no harm in being honest though.

"Well...I don't know. He wasn't a bad person himself. It was just his family that w- "

"He was a bad person." Latios interrupted.

While Bianca was slightly annoyed about Latios saying her boyfriend was a bad person, she was delighted that he was at least voicing his own opinion again.

"Well...I suppose. It depends who you are. You're quite scary to most people, but I think you're really kind."

Latios absorbed this. He certainly didn't FEEL kind. He'd not let Latias have any of the fish at Lorenzo's party, he'd never let her do anything, always held her back, he'd never had the guts to ask her to be his mate, and he hadn't even given her the present the moment he caught it. And there was the small matter of all the pokemon he'd killed in the failed attempt to get her back, though he was at half a mind to ignore those since he ate most of them afterwards, which was what he did to survive on a day to day basis. And now he was isolating Bianca. That definitely wasn't kind.

"Well...do you miss him?" It was the only thing he could think to say.

Bianca was fed up, she just wanted to spend some family time with Latios. Not talk about the son of the people who kidnapped his sister.

"No. Shall I tell you who I do miss?"

Latios did his first facial movement of the fortnight and raised a non-existent eyebrow.

"Who?"

Bianca managed to choke out the end of the sentence.

"Your sister. And you. I've missed both of you so badly...still do..."

Latios saw her crying but it took a few seconds to connect with him, he'd gone without emotion for so long. Bianca missed him too? Even though he was right here...because he'd shunned her because...because?

They both missed Latias. Granted, Bianca not as much as Latios, but it was common ground. Like saying everyone hates thieves - everyone does, but some have more reason to than others.

"Bianca?" Latios coo'd outloud and psychicly. His actual voice sounded hoarse. She looked up from holding her head in her hands.

"Do you want a hug?" It was the best he could do.

"Muhhh huuu" Bianca bawled by way of response.

Latios raised his left wing, the one that he wasn't lying on.

Without questioning it, Bianca crawled next to him, under the wing and tightly hugging his neck.

The two of them laid there, doing nothing but crying and emitting the occasional desperate wail.

* * *

**Alto Mare Broadcasting Station, Alto Mare, Hoenn, North Korea, Earth.**  
**Same time.**

"Lozzie?"

Lorenzo was sat in a darkened room, in front of a bank of monitors. He'd never seen himself getting a desk job, and while this wasn't exactly full-time desk based, a lot of it was. He enjoyed it though. About as much as working in the museum.

Right now, he'd just come off from filming the third episode of his series. It was his lunch break and he didn't need to be in the editing room, but he'd come here anyway to review some clips.

Specifically, the hospital clips, as they'd been codenamed. Locked up, encrypted, password-protected, scrambled and encrypted again, the clips contained every frame of footage that the camera crew had got of Latios while he was in the hospital. Only 8 frames - less than half a second - had him pictured while he was awake, and that was too blurry to identify, as it was taken as the camera man had dived for cover to escape him as Latios broke the sound barrier and crashed out of the hospital's skylight.

Lorenzo didn't realize it when he'd signed up, but not just the editors did the editing and stitching together of the programs. The presenters also edited them first, to get scenes in the right order and the like, before the editing people came in and did fancy titles and animations. Which was why Lorenzo was now so fluent at adding, splitting, jogging and removing video clips, despite rarely touching a computer before.

"Lozzie?". The voice asked again, as the stick-thin figure loomed at the doorway, casting a shadow that looked uncannily like a streetlight.

Lorenzo muted the video streams and all the screens cut to a set of colour bars, then slowly swivelled around on the incredibly comfy chair to address the beanpole woman.

"Yes, Charlotte?"

The woman walked into the room, but the other chair had been taken out, so she she half-sat on the desk. She looked worried.

"Is everything okay?" She sounded concerned too.

Everything was not okay for Lorenzo. With both of the twins gone, he'd lacked a structure that was otherwise built around them. When they'd gone, that structure had collapsed, leaving Lorenzo confused about what he actually did, more than once.

If Latias and Latios were with them, the first thing Lorenzo would do when he got home was feed them. While they were eating from their bowls, he'd share stories about the museum with them. Then they'd play with him and Bianca. Latios would do his check around Alto Mare, leaving Lorenzo to clean Latias' down...

But with Latias gone and Latios as good as gone, Lorenzo had frequently gone home and stood in the hallway until he thought of what to do instead. For periods of ten minutes or more.

"I'm fine, Charlotte, really."

"Hmm...you seemed a bit...out of it today. We might even have to edit your vocals on that last one to make it sound a bit... 'peppy'er". Lorenzo had learnt that in this industry, 'pep' could mean anything.

He hadn't been sleeping either. He hadn't told her, but he'd heard Bianca crying in her room at night. Each time he'd considered going and talking to her, only to chicken out because he didn't know what to say. Bianca wasn't twelve anymore, and his words weren't powerful enough to soothe or reassure her.

"I'm just tired. I've been thinking...about the Latios in the hospital..."

Lorenzo pressed a button on the console and the screens flipped back on, showing several different images of Latios lying on the hospital bed in the Alto Mare pokemon centre. This was before he woke up, an hour after he'd been admitted. As a result, he had the muzzle - which looked evil while it was attached to his snout - and a tonne of medical equipment attached, including two tubes down his neck and a needle in his right wing.

Lorenzo knew it was the real Latios, he'd taken him into the hospital after all. But for the sake of protecting the identity of both of them, Lorenzo frequently found himself making reasons as to why this Latios wasn't real.

He'd already visited the hospital again under the pretence of capturing some interviews with the nurses and filming some stock footage. But while he was there, he'd nabbed all the paperwork relating to Latios being in the hospital - everything from the initial admittance report, to an invoice for the broken windows - which was helpfully left in a box marked LATIOS. Not that any of the nurses knew it was missing, he'd taken it without asking. Then he'd taken it home to read, although even after a few hours he didn't understand it. What a 'heamorraged thyroid control nerve band of the nth degree', he had yet to discover. It was, for all intents and purposes, just another collection of words.

On the top right screen, the video was paused on one frame that captured Latios from a side-on angle.

"It can't be real. He can't be real. This one here, look..." Lorenzo pointed to Latios' wing.

"It's way too short to provide enough lift to make him fly. This IS a ditto, I'm sure."

"Lozzie, we can't have you working like this." - the voice was kind, not shouting or even sarcastic. "We've done filming now, you can go home now. Please?"

Lorenzo didn't want to go home. Home was empty. The dragons filled it, physically and mentally. Without them, the house was just so much brick and mortar.

"Sorry Charlotte, but I can't. I just want to finish this clip and then - "

"Lorenzo, we get this a lot with our new starters. They go at it for weeks at an end, barely sleeping and spending all day editing. And then one day they get so tired, they just crash." - she made a popping noise with her mouth and dramatically collapsed her hands to her sides, paused for a second, and then carried on.

"And it always starts with, 'I'll just finish this bit'. I don't want you to be one of them. Stop what your doing, save, go home and have a nap. We're weeks ahead of schedule already thanks to this drama at the hospital."

"Charlotte, please! We've got the only footage of Alto Mare's legendary, now could be the cha-"

"I didn't want to do this Lorenzo, but I'm going to have to..."

Charlotte reached down under the editing desk and rotated a switch. All the screens popped into blackness. Next, she took a padlock resting on another hook under the desk, and secured it around the switch, before removing the key and putting it in her blouse pocket.

"This key stays with me until one o'clock tomorrow afternoon. Please, just go home and rest? It's for the better, I promise."

Part of Lorenzo hated Charlotte. She always had a solution, and was always a good one, but it was never quite delivered in the best way. I. E. Turning off the machine without warning.

"But, isn't there filming to be - "

"NO. We've basically done filming for the next two weeks, and anyway, you'd need so much time in makeup to remove the bags under your eyes, no offence that it wouldn't be worth it. Go home."

Lorenzo pushed himself out of the chair and briskly walked over to the door, slamming it to make his point known.

With the screens off and the blackout door shut, Charlotte was left in complete darkness, unable to find her way to the light switch or the door.

"Shit..."


	9. Chapter 9

An7: I know, right? I didn't expect hogwarts to be in Scotland either... On a serious note, I chose North Korea because its the closest bit of isolated land to Japan. Don't get too het up about it :)

* * *

Mac had finished his conversation with the pilots and was sat back down with Latias.

She had yet again taken residence in the window seat, even though it was dark outside and there was nothing to see. According to the flight map, which Latias had spent the past ten minutes looking at and trying to figure out, they were just flying around Sweden. Mac was glaring at his laptop.

"Mac?"

He turned to face her.

"Why can't we go straight there? Why do we go in wobbly lines?" Her finger trailed across the screen and followed the blue trail that the airplane was leaving.

The question sounded childish, but Mac had to remind himself that Latias knew nothing of airplanes or governments or anything like that.

"That's because that country has said we can't fly through it, so we have to go around."

"Why? What country would do that?"

"Well, that one. It's either because the pilot hasn't bothered to file a flight plan, or because the air above that country is already full, or even because the air traffic controllers in the country don't want to deal with us, like if they're on strike."

"Right," Latias didn't understand much of what he said, but had decided on another pressing issue to nag Mac about.

"Mac? You said there was food in here? Where?"

Mac sighed at the question, it was just so typical of a toddler. Where are we? When are we eating? Next thing you know, she'd be asking if they were nearly there yet.

"Well, there's a trolley like on the train. But if you're hungry now I guess I could ask the attendant?"

She gave him puppy dog eyes and Mac conceded.

"Alright. What kind of thing do you want?"

"Human food!"

"Okay? That's the only stuff they have. I mean, sweets, crisps, drink?"

"Meat?"

"No. Not until they give out the in-flight meal. How about some sweets or something?"

Latias considered it.

"Okay, but can I have more than last time?"

Mac thought two bags she had last time was enough really, but Latias clearly didn't hold the same view.

"How much more?"

"Can I have six this time?"

Six was a ridiculous number. Not to mention the cost, although that didn't really matter.

"Six? I don't think that's healthy."

"Not having any meat isn't very healthy either. Bianca says I've always got to eat at least a third of my weight every day. More when I'm in season, which I am."

Mac grimaced. He didn't need to know that last bit, but he had to ask.

"Season?"

"Yeah. Season, heat, time of the year. What?"

Mac dismissed this with a wave of the hand before she went into more elaborate detail.

"So you want more food?"

"Yep. I've got carnivore teeth for a reason."

When Mac was young, his father had read him a story called 'The Tiger Who Came for Tea'. Short story shorter, the tiger ate everything in the house. Mac could see an identical situation with Latias in replacement of the tiger. And the plane replacing the house.

With a sigh, Mac got up from his seat and walked to the front of the plane, where the trolley was parked. Behind it was a different attendant to the one who had taken them to the pilots. She was avidly playing Angry Birds on a tablet.

"Err...hi?"

She looked up and Mac realised that the question he was going to ask would be difficult to phrase, especially since he was going to ask if they had anything that fulfilled the definition of 'meat' just in case. 'What's the meatyist thing you have?', 'I'm looking for some dead animal' and 'Can I have some breasts?', all seemed unsuitable. The last one especially as the woman seemed particularly excessive in the chest department.

"Yes?"

"Err...what is there to eat?". The moment he said it, Mac felt dumb.

"Well, we've got crisps, chocolate and some sweets right now. But the in flight meal will be served in about 15 minutes."

Latias wouldn't be pleased, but she would have to deal with it, because there was no point in buying more food when they'd get their own meal in a few minutes.

He thanked the attendant and returned to his seat.

Latias noted him coming back empty handed and instantly scowled.

"MAC! HUNGRY! WHERE'S FOOD?"

"Food is in the microwave. You'll get it in a few minutes."

"But I'm hungry NOW! And there's not berries or anything!"

In the garden, or indeed anywhere outdoors, Latias always had a pretty much unlimited access to whatever fruit she could sniff out. And if it was meat she craved, Latios was always there to hunt for her, or at least watch over while she caught something. There was no such freedom in the compressed metal tube.

"Hey, I'd have it sooner too, but microwave cooking times are limited by the laws of ph-"

"HUNGRY NOW!"

Secretly, Mac wondered if her persistent and slightly annoying attitude was what she was normally like, or just what she was like, 'in season'. Unfortunately, the thought wasn't secret enough, and Latias overheard.

"Hey! That's not fair! You try growing eggs inside you without a partner, because that is what MY body is trying to do! Oh, wait, you can't. Because that's all males are here for - to help the females make the offspring. That is ALL you do. I hope Latios isn't like you... "

Latias had, up until now, sounded like she'd rather not talk about her pending relationship with her brother, so it seemed odd she was now talking about it as if they were already 'mates' .

"Was that last bit meant to be in your own head?"

"No. Wait...about Latios? Yes. Go away. No! Don't leave! I need you to get home!"

Latias grabbed hold of Mac's arm and clinged to it tightly, even though he was sat down and had barely moved. If this was what Latios had to deal with as Latias' mate, Mac felt sorry for him. Yet again, Latias read his thoughts.

"Well you shouldn't! The whole point of being near a male is that it makes you all good and happy! Especially if they're really powerful. That's why you've got to show off as much as you can. That way, you get the best mate, and the best mate is bo-"

"LATIAS. TOO MUCH INFORMTAION."

"What? All I was saying is that I would totally-"

"NO!"

"Interesting thing here, the exact opposite goes for Latios. He'll be completely rational until he catches the scent of me when I'm in season, and then h-"

Mac lost it completely and put his hands over his ears, making the lalalala noise as well. Considering he was in the first class of the airplane, it looked awfully stupid. It was pointless too, because Latias was sending the thoughts to his brain, not his ears. Covering them did nothing.

"Latias please just STOP!"

The voice in his head silenced itself.

"Thank you. Now do you want to see something cool?"

"Can I eat it?"

"No,"

"Well then no."

Mac gave her a 'You still have to sit with me for another three hours' glare.

"Okay. But this better be cool. Otherwise I might have your arm for meat."

Mac couldn't tell if she was joking or not. Warily, he lifted the lid on his laptop and swivelled it is towards Latias, pointing to an icon on the screen.

"You see this? This is that engine." He pointed through the window to the jet engine outside the plane.

Latias couldn't have looked more bored if she was trying. Even worse, she was trying.

"And?"

Mac honestly thought she'd be more interested.

"Well, I've logged into my computer at work from here. I can look at its stats and remotely control the engine from this laptop, right here."

"And?"

"Err...I can do that to any engine on the planet."

Latias served up some perfectly tuned sarcasm.

"Fantastic. Now you can crash the plane with the push of a button?"

Mac rolled his eyes at her and looked back at the screen.

"Well...you can see what other planes are around."

"No thanks."

Mac slammed the laptop lid down and sat back, making a point that Latias was making things difficult. He decided to make things difficult for her.

"Are you this moody all the time, or just when your in season?"

She shot him dagger eyes, much to his delight. Mac couldn't keep his face straight though, and cracked into a grin after a few seconds. Latias didn't change her face. She did psychic him though.

"You're as annoying as Bianca. Yes. I just want to be with another male of my own species, okay? I'll be much better after some private time with my mate. There, I said it. Anyway, I thought humans were meant to be polite about these issues."

"Yeah, but you're not human, are you? I bet your pokemon friends go on about seasons and heats and mates all the time."

This was true, but not the point that Latias was on about.

"Yes, but YOU'RE human. And MALE. You're not meant to be interested in this kind of thing."

Mac knew her point, but was going on simply for the conversation.

"Well yeah. But this is a different world I'm going to right? Things could be different and I need to know."

Latias shrugged her shoulders, a motion that wasn't well rehearsed and consequently looked somewhat robotic.

"Well, your world doesn't look much like mine at all. I don't think I'd be able to even tell you half of what goes on. I think the best way for you to learn is experience."

Mac nodded whilst staring at the back of the seat infront. It was a whole new world he was going into. Three hours on a plane wasn't going to be enough to learn about it. He'd just have to wait and see.

A voice spoke down from the speaker in the ceiling.

"Hello everyone, I'm just here to tell you that our assistants will be passing through the cabin shortly to offer the in-flight meal, this is included in your ticket price and is as-ordered when you got your ticket."

Latias turned to Mac, excited.

"Finally! Not that the kind matters, but what meat did you order us?"

Mac got that jittery, sinking feeling inside his stomach. The same kind you got when bad news slowly starts to dawn on you. He never thought that this predicament could be seen as dire, but right now he had every right to panic.

"Err...I don't think I DID order anything."

Latias lowered her gaze at Mac as the assistant stepped out into the isle.

"What do you mean, 'Didn't order'? I'm hungry Mac. Starving. I NEED FOOD!"

Mac was the first person that particular attendant got to. She was wheeling a trolley with trays slotted in the side.

"Good afternoon Sir, can I ask you what you ordered when you got your ticket?"

Mac rubbed the back of his head and explained, Latias' eyes drilling into him the entire time.

Latias WAS starving. She hadn't had proper meat for weeks. At the Team Rocket HQ all she'd been given was some sort of chemical mush that had everything it needed, and nothing else. No tasty bits or anything.

Things had gotten better with the rawst berries this morning and the 'mouse', as Mac called it. But it just wasn't enough to keep her going. It was a good job she wasn't needed to fly, because she doubted that it would be possible while she was this hungry. The energy drinks on the train seemed good for incredibly short bursts of flying, but again, they weren't sufficient.

"That's okay sir, all the tickets had a meal booked. Just choose what you want now."

Mac breathed a sigh of relief. The trolley had labels above each slot for a tray, with the contents written on the label. It wasn't an in-depth description - in fact, they just had 'BEEF', 'CHICKEN', 'VEGETARIAN' or similar on them - but it was good enough for Mac's need.

He glanced at Latias and gestured for her to pick a tray. She immediately pointed to the one labelled 'COD'.

Mac slid the tray out with some assistance from the attendant, before picking one himself. The attendant moved down the plane, leaving Latias and Mac to their meals.

Airplane food had improved in the past two years. The A350 even had room for a kitchen, so - even though the vegetables and other sides were blatantly microwaved - the meat was properly cooked.

Mac rested the tray on the flip-down table infront, peeled the clingfilm from around it and disposed of the film in the mini rubbish bin at the side if the chair.

Latias was not having such an easy time. She'd managed to flip down the table, but the clingfilm was providing an obstacle.

From Mac's perspective, it looked like Latias was unaware of the film's presence, and that she was trying to just grab the battered cod with her hands, which immediately just slid off the cling film.

From Latias' point of view, she couldn't pierce whatever it was that was stopping her from getting to the fish.

The smell was almost driving her crazy, it was the first fish she'd smelt in weeks, but she didn't have claws in her human form and Bianca's fingers seemed useless against the transparent film. There was seemingly no way to puncture it. Or at least, that's what it looked like.

Latias eyed the sharp edge on Mac's laptop. It looked easily capable of cutting the barrier.

Before he could object, she nabbed the computer from his lap and swung it down on the tray, before casting it aside and checking the damage.

The fish had been mashed up, and that was about it. The film looked stretched, but the force had been more of a bludgeoning than a cutting and it remained unbroken.

With a sigh, Latias placed her nose as close to the tray as possible and inhaled the smell.

"I love fish," she pondered sadly, also transposing the thought to Mac, who was sat stunned from when she'd used his laptop to seemingly crush her tray.

"Can't you get the foil off?" Mac asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. She looked genuinely sad.

"No."

Mac sighed and put down the plastic knife and fork he'd just picked up. He reached over to Latias' tray and in one swift movement, removed all the clingfilm. Instantly, Latias started picking up pieces of the fish with her hands and putting them in her mouth, before chewing excessively.

"Latias, the knife and fork?" Mac politely tried to point out. Latias didn't even hear him, too absorbed in her food. Or rather, too absorbed in eating it.

It tasted so good. It was the first fish she'd had in over a week, and she'd never actually done that before. She'd scarcely gone two days without it at home. Even though this fish was cooked and battered, it was still infinitely better than any of the meals she'd had as of late. It wasn't the best fish ever, but after the long wait to eat, it certainly tasted like it.

Mac watched as in seconds the plate was picked clean of any trace of the meat. He hadn't even started his, and Latias had already chewed down an entire battered cod. And barely eight seconds had passed.

Latias looked up at him, eyeing up the meal he had yet to tuck in to.

"Aren't you hungry?"

Mac put an arm around his food.

"Yes, I am. But you ate that cod so quickly, I didn't even have time to start my food. Do you eat like that all the time?"

Latias started picking up the chips - again with her hands - sniffing each individual one and then eating it, whilst psychicly answering Mac's question.

"I LOVE fish. We have it all the time at home. When I say 'we', I mean me and Latios. Bianca says we're 'sea faring mammals' or something like that. But it means we like fish. And hunting it is SO easy! Me and Latios can chat while we hunt, they're that deaf."

Mac was eating some mashed potatoes that had blatantly come out of a can, and didn't want to respond verbally, so he just nodded. Latias continued.

"We love going hunting for fish. It's not that difficult, really, because we're faster than anything in the sea. Plus fish are stupid."

Mac had finished his mouth full and chuckled at Latias' personification of fish. Then again...

"So, you DO have other animals in this world? Like cod? And salmon?"

Latias considered this for a second before answering, still eating the chips.

"Well, yes. But not in the wild. You can only see them in special centres where they're bred for food. Bianca buys them for us to eat."

"But I thought you caught them? You just said you hunted them?"

"Well, yeah. Bianca buys the special fish, but we also catch normal fish. Like magikarp, or febass."

"Right...so...are magikarp and febass pokemon?"

"Yep. And tasty ones at that."

"And you hunt those ones?"

"Yep." Mac looked like he needed more information, so she carried on.

"Well, Alto Mare is an island, so we're surrounded by sea. And where there's sea, there's fish. So we hunt fish most of the time. There's a few parks and stuff so we can hunt land pokemon from time to time. But they're not that big and there's often loads of tourists, so hunting in them is difficult."

Mac wasn't exactly sure how to respond to this explanation of animal behaviour, so he diplomatically shoved another mouthful of mashed potatoes into his mouth.

Latias, meanwhile, had finished her meal entirely.

"Are you going to eat that meat or not?" She asked, looking down at Mac's tray with the untouched slab of beef waiting on it.

Mac sighed.

"Well, I was, but if you..." He didn't get to finish the sentence as Latias reached across and picked up the beef in her hands, before bringing it up to her face and starting to tear corners off with her teeth.

"Or just take it. I guess that's good too." Mac was annoyed, because he hadn't eaten much throughout the day either, but on the other hand, Latias probably did need it more.

An hour later, and Latias had drifted off to sleep in the seat next to Mac, but he couldn't do the same. He was too busy thinking.

Their escape had been difficult, put simply, yet they'd managed quite easily. And there weren't any police at the airport. They hadn't locked him out of his work computer, which he could use to take down airplanes. No one had even circulated a description of him to the guards at the airport, which would have been easy to do through the radio. Or perhaps they had, and none of the security had recognised him.

But that part was so easy, it was almost like they wanted him to escape. But why?

Then again, they had shot at him and Latias. That was a big sign that they were trying to apprehend them. And yet...they'd made it.

Mac was idly watching the global overview from his work computer as he pondered their escape. Right now, they were flying over Burma, after a rather roundabout detour.

Mac lazily tracked a new engine that had started up just east of their position. There were over two hundred in his view, but he'd filtered them out over this one because it was categorised as a prototype. It'd be interesting to see how it performed. He'd even made the program outline it red.

Mac raised an eyebrow as the stats showed the engine - and therefore the plane it was attached to - jump from 60 feet altitude, to 20,000 in under half a minute. The updates weren't regular, but all the same. That one went like a rocket.

Another thirty seconds later, and the dot had moved eleven miles. It's speed clocked through at over 1000 miles an hour. The scale didn't go past that, apparently for 'security reasons'.

Mac considered typing in his password and clearing the message, but it wouldn't be worth it. The password was sixteen completely random characters and the engine was probably just some military test, hence the secrecy.

Mac froze.

The dot was heading towards them. And hadn't he just said that it was probably attached to some military thing? There were many possible explanations, but in reality, it could only really mean one thing.

The military were after them again. This time in mid-air.

Mac clicked through the settings on his laptop, trying to find out more. The only thing he could find out that wasn't locked out was that the engine was built by one of his friends in research and development, and that it was too big to be attached to a missile.

So it was a plane. Supersonic, probably a prototype jet fighter with missiles and guns. Heading for them.

Mac reached for his bag, and shook Latias at the same time. She woke with a start to find Mac rummaging around at her feet.

"Mac? Are we nearly there?"

Mac carried on looking in his bag, but answered at the same time.

"Yes. But we may not be if I don't do something quite quickly."

Latias detected panic in his voice, and decided to read his mind for the rest of the details. She didn't like what she saw.

"They're going to blow us up?"

Mac had found the item in his bag and shielded it from Latias' view as he closed the bag again.

"Well, it's a possibility. So we need to get away. Now."

Latias didn't like the way he said that last bit.

"What do you mean? What are you going to do?"

Mac turned and looked her in the eyes, unsure of how to deliver the next sentence.

"I'm sorry, but this has to be done. Don't panic. "

Latias got worried when Mac shakily got up out of his seat. She went into complete panic when she saw that Mac appeared to be holding a gun, and was stepping into the isle of the airplane, looking somewhat crazy.

Mac shouted at the top of his voice, also waving the gun in the air, attracting the attention of every single passenger at the front on the top deck. Whatever it was he was doing, it did it effectively.

"EVERYONE LISTEN UP! I WANT YOU ALL TO MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE BACK OF THE PLANE. THEN GO DOWNSTAIRS AND WARN EVERYONE ELSE. THIS PLANE IS UNDER ATTACK. DON'T LET ANYONE ELSE COME UPSTAIRS."

There was a shocked silence. No one knew quite weather to believe to boy at the front of the plane. Was the gun even real?

Mac stopped shouting and answered the majority's doubts.

"Yes. This is loaded." He paused to take aim, then fired a shot. It smashed right into a CCTV dome in the ceiling. He turned around and shot another dome, before re aiming and taking out the final one just above the entry to the cockpit. It was a medium range shot and Mac was secretly pleased he'd made it. But that didn't offset the jelly in his legs.

There was a pause as the 20 people considered the best way to leave. This ended when a woman screamed and caused a mass panic that sent all the passengers scampering to the back of the plane.

Mac looked at Latias, guilt etched into his face. Latias just looked shocked.

"What was that for?" She couldn't have sounded more accusing.

Mac sighed and steadied himself on the chair.

"I could explain, but we've got two point five minutes until some bad people arrive with some much bigger weapons than this." He waved the gun to make his point. "Please just do as I say?"

Latias trusted Mac, she really did. But the last person she saw with a gun was trying to kill her, so she was understandably nervous.

"What do you want me to do?"

Mac put it bluntly.

"Transform into the flying thing. We're going to hijack this plane and get as far as we can. If that doesn't work, we're going to have to bail out quickly. Both of which are things I need you in your flying form for."

This was crazy. Latias knew that. The stress was clearly getting to Mac, but now he'd shot half the plane, they weren't exactly in a position to sit down and possibly have another meal. But then again, was he honestly suggesting that they bail out of the aircraft in mid air and fly away unscathed? She could, no problem, but Mac? Humans were awfully fragile and died very easily.

Mac tried to reason some more.

"Please? I've shot the cameras, I've sent everyone downstairs. The only people that will see the dragon you is me, and the pilots. And they won't have any proof. We've got two point two five minutes left."

It was stupid to keep waiting, Latias realised. Whether she liked it or not, Mac's plan was the only way forward now. She might as well go with it.

Mac sighed with relief as Latias stepped out into the isle, before she started glowing blue. A second later, the blue settled down and the red dragon was revealed. Her face was looking more fearsome than usual.

At the front of the plane, the hostess was on the plane phone to the cockpit. Whispering, she was describing everything that she could figure out, hidden behind the trolley with the phone cord stretched to the limit.

"They're planning on hijacking us. Small gun. Yeah. The engineer and his assistant. Yes. Wait, what?"

The assistant pushed the phone to her ear, but the call had gone dead. Which was impossible, unless someone had cut the cord that spanned between the wall and the phone she was holding now. With dread, she looked up to see what had done it.

Latias had bitten on the wire, cutting it in two, also keeping both ends in her mouth. When the attendant looked up from behind the trolley she looked fit to pass out there and then. Mac pushed past Latias and went to help her.

He patted Latias on the head to look more friendly, before offering a hand to the attendant. She sat dead still, shocked. Mac continued regardless, in the softest voice he could muster.

"I am so sorry about this. Do you want help getting up? No? Okay. That's fine. Listen, we're not going to hurt you, but me and my friend - Latias, the big red dragon - are being hunted by the military. We've got two minutes before they get her and try to kill both of us. I can stop them, but I need to get into the cockpit to use the radio and talk with them. Could you let us in, please?"

This all proved too much for the poor woman, and she collapsed to the ground, passed out.

Mac groaned.

"Great. She was supposed to tell us the password, now how do we get it?"

Latias was already there with an answer.

"I read her mind. The numbers to get in to that door are 2194880571"

Mac would have kissed Latias if she didn't look ready to kill. He shoved his way back through to the keypad in the door and pressed the numbers as Latias said them again. It was too easy.

The numbers glowed green, but the door stayed locked. A light labelled SPEAK lit up on the keypad, and he remembered that he had to talk and get the pilots to open the door. Time to persuade. Latias hovered and watched as Mac did his best to persuade the pilots.

She was glad to be in her real form. It certainly made her feel safer. She could smell better, see better, and fly. The plane could explode now and she'd be able to just fly away, with perhaps a few minor cuts. She'd be lost. But alive. Which would probably be more than what Mac could say. Speaking of him, she listened to his reasoning.

"Look on your radar? Behind us? What can you see? Nothing? Because there isn't. You've got a high tech fighter plane heading this way, and they're after me and my friend. They're going to kill us. They've tried already. And they'll kill you too if they think it'll benefit them. They'll blow up the entire plane if they think it'll make sure the job is done. Let me in, I can radio them. I can fix this." Mac was pleading by the end.

The SPEAK light went out. It was replaced with the co-pilot's voice a few seconds later.

"We can't do that. We have already received radio communications, we will be making a landing at our alternative airport, where you will be apprehended by the relevant authorities. The plane behind - I have been assured - is to escort us. We will not open the door. Please take a seat, we will be landing shortly." There was a click and the voice stopped. The keypad turned red.

The voice was formal, final. Mac didn't believe the transport plane story, even if the pilots did. If it was just an escort, why was the engine and attached plane a prototype travelling over 1000 miles an hour? You didn't send a prototype to escort a plane home, you sent one to exterminate everything on board said plane. One thing was sure though. They weren't going to open the door. Which meant he was going to have to.


	10. Chapter 10

The following chapter was powered by Sleep Deprivation, Loud Machinery, Coffee and Dubstep. You have been warned.  
Seriously. **_Graphic Scenes. Viewer Discretion is advised._**

* * *

Two minutes. Two minutes to open a door made from 1-inch thick high-impact aluminium tungsten carbide composite, six separate tumblers incorporated into a latticed in-frame lock. All he had was a handgun. Mac was being optimistic when he told Latias that it would be impossible for him to open. She didn't sound impressed.

"So your saying if we don't get in there, we die?"

Mac hung his head.

"That is the most likely outcome. And I can't see us getting in there with just this." He held up the pistol by the magazine, making it look as useless as it was given the situation.

He was expecting compassionate words from Latias. He was not expecting her to order him to move.

"Mac! Move out of the way of the door!" It wasn't a request, it wasn't an opening for debate, it was a demand. Mac did it without hesitation, stepping out of the path between Latias and the door. He looked at her quizzically.

"You can't barge it down. It's held in place with-"

"You don't have feathers on your ears. Cover them and eyes now."

Mac saw her mouth begin to glow and decided she probably knew best, then plugged his fingers into his ears. He couldn't do much to shield his eyes, and so had to content himself with burying his head in his forearm, before screwing them shut.

Latias focused on the edge of the door. If what Mac was saying was true - and she had no reason to doubt him - then the only way out involved destroying this door. Which she could do, no problem. She was slightly angry that he'd got a gun and not told her, but not very. He was only doing what he thought was right. Even if it was wrong. Guns didn't solve anything. If it wasn't for guns, she wouldn't have been kidnapped. She was going to make him ditch the gun the moment they left the plane.

Latias wasn't thinking about that when she vaporised the cockpit door. She was thinking of home. And how much she wanted to get there. The door was the perfect place to vent all the anger at her situation, in the form of a very precise hyper beam.

The beam was created just in front of Latias' mouth, flooded the entire cabin with blinding light, and slammed into the door. The door instantly began to fizzle as each molecule of aluminium was incinerated, producing even more light and making tiny bang noises as they exploded, which added up into a giant roar. In seconds, the door ceased to exist. Latias stopped firing the beam.

Even through his fingers, the roar was deafening to Mac. And even though his eyes were closed and he was looking away, the light still burned his vision a bit. Like having the world's largest camera flash imprinted on your vision even after a few seconds of having the picture taken.

"The door is gone." The words that appeared in Mac's head were exactly what he wanted to hear.

He removed his fingers from his ears and pocketed the gun. The pilots would be shell-shocked by the door being blasted away, but all it would take was one finger press to activate the A350's last hijack resort. He didn't want to give them another reason to press it.

He stole his way to the side of the door and held up three fingers to Latias. She nodded in response.

He dropped each finger one by one, until both Mac and Latias burst into the cockpit of the plane. As Latias growled - which Mac thought was a nice intimidating touch - Mac surveyed the pilots.

Both were wearing a full-face oxygen mask, though this didn't surprise him. Pilots had full-face masks ready to wear for emergencies, and they'd want to wear them if they planned on activating the last hijack defence.

The control panel for the plane looked normal, no alarms or anything. Mac glanced at the radio controls. Both were set to a frequency he was trained to avoid.

Both pilots had turned around and were looking at Latias. There was still a certain amount of vaporised aluminium in the air, which only added to the pilots dramatic situation of having a dragon in the cockpit.

Mac spoke in a low and threatening voice.

"I want both of you two to remove your masks, right now. Don't think about pushing that panic button either. Nice and slowly. That's right."

Both men started to remove their masks, still looking at Latias. Whatever will they had to resist, it went the moment a human sized dragon with big pointy teeth and what looked like an attitude problem burst into the cabin.

"Okay then. Nice and easy. Now I want your to put them back on the little shelf you got them from. Up there. Very good..."

Mac gestured to the stowage compartment where the masks were stored, and the men put them away. To Mac, it felt awkward bossing around two much older people.

There was a silence as Mac considered what to say next. He pointed to the pilot.

"You. Out of that seat, I'm driving now. Latias won't hurt you as long as you do exactly as I say."

The pilot blinked twice, considering his options.

Sev was utterly dumbstruck. One moment it was a routine flight, the next the military had radio's to say that there was a serial killer was on board and that they were bringing him in. And then the serial killer bursts in with some giant, mean looking bird and orders him out of the seat.

Sev regretted not pressing the panic button when he still could. The button was supposed to release a cloud of pepper spray into the cockpit, but he couldn't deploy it while he wasn't wearing the mask, for the simple fact that he would be incapacitated and unable to fly the plane.

Mac thanked him as Sev stepped out of the seat, also trying to stay as far away from Latias as possible.

"Thanks. You can stay here to make sure I don't do anything stupid. Don't mind Latias, she's actually quite playful when there aren't people out to kill her."

Sev didn't look any less worried as Mac climbed into the pilots seat. Latias realised Mac's 'appear calm' plan and tried to ease the ex-pilot's anxiety by rubbing her forehead on his shoulder. She stopped almost immediately as his pulse skyrocketed to a dangerous level. She didn't want another person fainting.

At the controls, Mac reached for the radio headset that the pilot had put down on the centre console.

Mac had only ever flown light aircraft before, and the Airbus was not the same by a long way. To say the controls were similar was like saying a motorcycle and a yacht had similar drinks facilities.

Nonetheless, Mac strapped on the radio and tried talking.

"Mike Six Romeo Indigo Sugar. Does anyone copy?"

Latias thought that the first bit was the worst cake recipe ever, and tried calming down Sev some more. She tried lightly cooing and doing the most flamboyant aerial gestures she could given the confined space. The pilot squashed himself further against the wall.

Mac had given up on the radio and started thinking outloud.

"How do I do an announcement...oh is this thingy here? Yeah. Probably..."

Mac picked up a separate microphone, pressed a button on the side, and spoke into that.

"Good evening passengers, this is not your captain speaking..."

Well, the sound came through a speaker in the roof, so this must be an announcement thingy.

"We're about to receive some unwanted attention from the British military, so please fasten your seat belts and prepare for moderate turbulence."

There really was no other way to say it.

Mac turned to the copilot.

"Yeah...err...how do you send a radio transmission. Don't change the frequency, just transmit?"

"It's that one." The copilot pointed to a tiny switch marked TX that Mac was annoyed he'd missed earlier. "Seriously though, you should just leave it. These guys know what they're doing and-"

"I asked how to do the radio, not for your opinion. Now shut up. I have an important call to make."

Latias leaned in-between the seats and growled at the copilot, which Mac - again - thought was a nice touch. Latias really knew how to play a situation. And now she'd gotten them into the cabin, intimidation was the best thing she could do.

The copilot shut up and Mac pressed down the switch.

"This is Mikey Six Romeo Indigo Sugar, does anyone copy?"

A pause. Then, a voice, repeated not just on Mac's headset but through the speaker in the cockpit. Everyone present heard the conversation.

"Mikey Six, this is a reserved channel for international flight communication. Switch to an appropriate channel to avoid a fine, over."

"Come in. This is Romeo Indigo Sugar. That is a negative to channel switch, I am on board flight 836 to Hong Kong. Over."

The silence lasted longer this time, and when it came back, the voice was angrier.

"Romeo Indigo Sugar, confirm you are Marc Simmons of England."

"Affirmative. I have negotiation terms for the safe return of this aircraft. Over."

No silence this time, the reply was immediate. And substantially better quality. They were getting closer.

"Her Majesty's Defence does not negotiate with terrorists."

Mac didn't know where to go from there, and both pilots were giving him worried looks. Although the voice sounded familiar.

"Indigo Sugar, I am not a terrorist, I am a freedom fighter for one of your detainees. Am I communicating with Corporal Preece?"

"No Sir, that is classified."

"I have clearance, as your records indicate. Am I communicating with Corporal Preece?"

"Your clearance has been revoked. Corporal Preece is my superior."

"Tell Corporal Preece that he owes me one."

"Her Majesty's Defence owes Marc Simmons nothing. Marc Simmons owes the Defence department one live specimen."

Mac leaned over to Latias and nudged her playfully. "He means you!"

Both pilots looked horrified. The person who'd just hijacked the plane was talking to an animal. Crazy.

Even crazier, the animal started making noises back.

"So I'm a live specimen now?"

Mac had the transmit switch down for Latias' reply, so the person on the other end could hear the cooing noises.

"Could you confirm the specimen is with you now?"

"You mean to tell me that with your fancy jet plane, you can't even tell who's standing in the cockpit?"

"Negative. We shall reach visual contact minus seventeen seconds. Are you refusing to answer?"

"Hmmm...nope. Yes, Latias is here."

"Can I clarify that 'Latias' is what you have named the live specimen?"

"Negative. She gave that name to herself." Mac was grinning as he said that last bit, and Latias giggled. The co-pilot considered pressing the panic button regardless of the fact they weren't wearing masks.

"Sir, this fighter is equipped with an array of eight peacekeepers, twelve MACMs, thirty other assorted missiles, EJTs and a mini gun. Please answer the question."

"You can't launch peacekeepers over this country. That's an act of war. Over."

"Tthe mini gun isn't."

"That is correct. The live specimen is called Latias, yes, affirmative, whatever."

Mac almost swallowed his words when the aircraft started to rumble and shake. Had they fired on them?

Seconds later, a jet fighter came into view on the right hand side of the airplane. Through the pilot's window, Mac could just about see it. A darker patch among a patch of dark, indicated by the orange glow of the gas turbine at the back of it.

It didn't look like any other fighter jet Mac had seen before, confirming Mac's suspicions of it being a prototype.

The autopilot was still on, and the aircraft stopped shuddering after a few seconds. It was just turbulence, probably from the supersonic airplane drawing along side them.

"We request you immediately hand control back to the crew so a landing can be made. You will then be taken into custody."

Mac mulled it over.

"What are the consequences of denying this action?" The posh way of saying 'what are you going to do about it?'

"To ensure the safety of the Great British population and allied forces, you will be executed."

"That's harsh. How so?" Mac was doing this just for the shits, beyond caring. It also got him more time to get on his phone and connect to his work computer. He had an idea.

"You will be shot down and the resulting crash site burned."

"We're flying over water. Can't burn water."

"You can if you spray oil and napalm over it, as per instructions."

Mac hit a button on his phone's touch screen.

Over 3000 miles away, in Mac's office, his computer logged in. Acting on commands from Mac's phone, it opened up the file for the prototype engine, and ordered it to shut down. Back on Mac's phone, a countdown appeared. 5:00 minutes. 300 Seconds.

The five minute rule was put in place as a safeguard. If no one in the office stopped the countdown, the engine would shutdown in 5 minutes from it being told to. This meant that a rouge employee wouldn't be able to do what Mac was doing, and start closing engines down for no reason.

In the UK, it was half nine at night. No one was manning the diagnostic desks, leaving the computers to alert them at home if something was wrong instead. So no one was there to stop the engine shutdown.

Mac's plan was simple. Stall the fighter jet for a few more minutes, and then it's only engine would shut down, sending it plummeting to earth. Then Mac could simply fly the plane right next to Korea, give it back to the pilots, and jump out with Latias flying him to safety.

Mac pressed down the switch again.

"Yeah, about the safe landing thing. Why have the military dispatched a prototype fighter to just escort this aircraft to a landing?"

"We do not answer to terrorists."

"You're not planning on escorting us back at all, are you? You're going to shoot us down, here and now, regardless of what we agree to."

Mac didn't believe what he just said. It was a question just to stall the pilot of the jet fighter. But if it wasn't true, said pilot was taking an alarming about of time to answer.

"Patching you LIVE to urgent conference with UN security council."

Over the radio, there was a click, then a beep. Then a new voice. A woman's.

"-olen potentially catastrophic military equipment from the British. He is trying to take this equipment to Korea, a potentially unstable state. Used in the wrong way it can destroy the entirety of Western civilisation."

Latias made a 'who, me?' face. It would have been comic, except Mac realized what was about to be said. Despite the fact that he should be taking action, he was frozen into the seat.

"The British military are requesting that Marc Simmons be executed before such transfer to said unstable state can be done. This request was granted and is effective as of G. M. T 2136. In addition, the threat was seen great enough by the jury of no absentees, to warrant the 'At all costs' clause, up to a point of 130 civilian casualties. This clause is carried as of the above." There was a beeping noise again. Then silence.

Both pilots and Latias looked at Mac.

"Does this mean?"

"SHUT UP AND TURN OFF THE AUTOPILOT!"

Mac had no idea how it worked on this plane, but he'd need it off if they were going to have any hope of escaping.

The copilot lunged for a dial and turned it anticlockwise, grabbing hold of the controls as the autopilot disengaged. The entire plane dipped slightly when it switched off.

"Let ME move the plane. I want YOU to switch off the air compressor."

"If you do that we won't be able to breathe."

"Does it look like I care? Do it."

"No. It's suicide!"

"Latias?"

Latias leaned in-between the chairs and growled at the copilot. It looked like he was beyond caring about his own personal safety.

"Can that even breathe at this height? And I think you're bluffing. I bet your bird wouldn't harm a fly."

Mac was in a conundrum. On one hand, they needed the compressor off if they were going to open the airplane doors and jump out of the plane. It was physically impossible to open them with the compressed air in the cabin. On the other, he couldn't bring himself to order Latias to actually hurt the man. So perhaps he was bluffing. Perhaps Latias could judge it better.

"Latias, if the man doesn't turn off the compressor, we can't open the plane doors and we won't get you back to Latios."

Responsibility to justify hurting the copilot offloaded onto Latias, Mac was telling himself that everything that happens afterwards was under Latias' jurisdiction.

"Do as Mac says or I'll eat your arm." Latias howled at the copilot. To his credit, he only jumped about half a meter.

"No. You're risking the life of every single-"

"And having missiles fired at us isn't?" Mac retaliated, temper well and truly lost.

"You're a coward. You got yourself in a mess, you had a chance to fix it and you haven't. If we're going to die, your going to die with us."

"Well that's just selfish. Latias?"

Latias was angry at the man. Perhaps Mac was being a coward, but Latias wasn't. She just wanted to get home, and he was stopping her.

Latias lunged forward, and clamped her teeth around the co-pilot's closest arm. Instinctively, he pulled his arm back and away, but Latias' teeth were deep in his skin, and she shook her head. The action instantly tore deeper gouges in his arm, and blood immediately began to drain out of the man and into the cockpit.

"Oh my god. What...what?" The co-pilot stared at his arm for a few seconds, then Latias. Her eyes had lost what little amount of playfulness they had in them. Now they were just raw anger.

"I...I...but...?" The copilot continued to stutter.

To make matters worse, the radio flared up again, back to the fighter pilots voice.

"Marc Simmons, you have been sentenced to execution for crimes against the state. This sentence is to be carried out within the next thirty seconds. The collateral loss of the passengers and crew of the airplane you are on has been authorised. You have your remaining twenty-seven seconds for final requests, as per the Geneva convention."

The copilot fainted, the loss of blood from the wound in his arm starving his brain of oxygen. Latias released his arm and quickly licked the blood off the feathers around her mouth.

Mac's phone showed the time left until the fighter jet was shutdown. 3 minutes, 15 seconds. Not even close.

That didn't mean he was going to give up. He released the aircraft controls and instantly the plane started to pull up. He stayed on the seat though, and looked at the terrified pilot behind him.

"YOU. COMPRESSOR OFF. NOW."

Sev raised his hand, and Mac dived to the side. In Sev's hand was a stun gun, presumably hidden in some off-plans compartment. And he wasn't about to turn the compressor off.

Before Mac could react, he ploughed the stun gun into Latias' rump, just behind her wing, and clicked it on.

There was a zapping noise as 40,000 volts discharged themselves through Latias. The majority went on scorching her feathers, but a few thousand passed through her nervous system, causing a terrifying amount of pain.

Latias yelped and her muscles contracted, pulling her into the foetal position and making her drop to the floor.

A second later, the stun gun clicked off, the battery exhausted. But it appeared to have done its job. Latias was on the floor, quivering, head under wing. Dragon down and immobile, Sev started to shout at Mac.

"RIGHT! THAT'S IT! WE'RE ALL DEAD. BECAUSE OF YOU! WHY? WHY DID YOU...YOU..."

His voice turned more sinister and Mac swivelled around totally in his seat.

"They said they wanted YOU executed. If I kill you, they won't need to..."

Mac realised Sev's plot, and ducked. Just in time.

The cabin of every airliner contains a backup CO2 fire extinguisher, as well as the automated system. Sev had just taken said extinguisher and piledrived it into where Mac's skull would have been half a second ago. Instead, it totalled the weather radar.

"Fuck...hold still. I can still save us!"

Mac was in an awkward situation for fighting back. His feet were on the chair's backrest, his back against the control panel, arms splayed out. There was nowhere to dodge to for the next strike, which Mac could already see Sev starting swing for.

Almost without thinking, Mac pushed his bottom against the steering control. This moved it away from the console, forcing the plane to pitch even further upwards. Fast.

"Fifteen seconds."

Just as the fire extinguisher was about to hit him, Sev lost his grip against the floor of the tilting aircraft, and the blow glanced harmlessly against the seat of the chair. With the plane almost vertical, Sev started falling against the back of the cockpit. Latias also started to slide, would have slid out of the doorway but for her wings. With a painful 'THWACK!', they hit the doorframe. Latias awoke.

She saw Sev. Then his aura. Then remembered that he had shocked her, prompting the micro nap. And no one hurt her like that.

With a roar, Latias flew up and bit into the pilots shoulder, the protrusion closest to her and best suited for biting. What surface wasn't already coated with blood from the co-pilot, soon got one from the pilot. Unlike the co-pilot though, the pilot started screaming as Latias treated him as she would any other pray. From Mac's viewpoint a meter above, he could see it all, first hand. And it wasn't pretty. It shocked him into immobility, and at the worst time.

"Five seconds."

Latias started to shake the soon-to-be-ex-pilot's shoulder, rapidly, like Latios had taught her. Many times, the shaking movement itself would kill the pray. But not for this one. It was bigger than most, and so she bit harder and tried again. There was a crunch as Sev's collar bone snapped, and another scream, but nothing.

Latias had lifted him off the floor slightly, but let go and allowed him to drop a foot, where he landed with a sickening splat. The scream had turned into a gurgle. But it was not any less sickening. Sev was still alive. Barely.

Latias didn't give up though. She picked him up again, this time biting down on the man's neck. This time, there was a snap and the screaming stopped all together. Latias shook him through her jaws one more time, before jumping backwards like Latios had told her, just in case it made a post-humorous attack. Some did that. Koffing, she had been told, released a toxic gas after they were killed, as a revenge mechanism.

But this was a human. There was no return attack. Just a silence.

Latias didn't really feel guilty - the human had attacked her, and stopped her from getting to Latios, and could have killed her. And now she'd killed him, he'd be a useful source of much needed protein. But before she could start eating, a beep filled the cockpit. Then the voice.

"ONE MACM DISPATCHED"

Latias turned to look up at Mac. He looked petrified. Then again, Latias supposed he had a right to. She had just hunted - and was about to eat - one of his own species.

Mac didn't want to move. Latias had turned to look right at him. He didn't know anything about her, but he didn't want to make any sudden moments in case she was the kind of animal that targeted quick moving things.

Latias was looking up at him, hoping Mac would do something about the fighter jet.

Mac was looking down at Latias, hoping he wasn't next on her menu.

And it stayed that way, until a second later, when there was an ear-drum shattering boom. Immediately after, there was a crackle, then another explosion sound.

Seconds later, the lights went out, and the cabin went black.

This wasn't an issue for Latias, as she could see by heat signatures and didn't need light. For Mac, it posed an obvious problem. To make matters worse, the cabin had become depressurised. This meant that all the air that was in it had left, in an event known as explosive decompression.

The loss of pressure merely hurt Mac's ears. But because Latias was so dependent on her ears for balance and navigation, the sudden change meant that she became completely disorientated.

"Mac! Which way is out?" she squealed physically and telepathically.

Mac dislodged himself from the control panel and landed back on the pilot's seat, crouching on the backrest because of the aircraft's vertical position. As he did, a few instruments flickered back on. Mac turned to inspect them, reassured that Latias was still dependant on him and not deciding which leg would be tastier.

"APU, GYO, and the rudder aren't working, according to this..." Mac hummed.

"They're all in the back of the plane. The missile must have hit the back."

Mac was beginning to feel the effects from the explosive decompression, pain in his ears, shortness of breath and confusion, but was trying to ignore them.

"The engines are still running, but the power rails have short circuited, hence the loss of power. We can fly, but not turn left or right."

Latias was in the process of trying to right herself, and telepathed Mac. "I want to leave!"

"That's probably a better idea. You know which way is up yet?"

Mac pushed against the control stick and the airplane began to return to level, according to the attitude indicator. He couldn't tell by looking outside, it was totally black.

"I think I'm getting better? What was up with my ears?"

Mac himself was struggling. At this height, he'd black out in under a minute, and he knew it.

"Pressure loss. We need to go down. Below 20,000 feet. Fast."

Mac pushed the controls harder, and the plane started to go from climbing to diving. The acceleration stopped Mac from falling out of the seat.

Latias sensed this.

"Mac! We're falling! Mac!"

"I know, just...just..."

Mac forgot what he was saying. In the already dark cabin, his vision started to fade. Lack of oxygen in the atmosphere was making him black out. He needed...oxygen?"

As if drunk, Mac reached up and grabbed the mask that the pilot had stowed away. The oxygen mask. As quickly as he could, he pressed it to his face and breathed in. Instantly he felt better. Like he was breathing delicious syrup.

"Mac! Falling!"

Mac spoke back through the mask and Latias stopped pestering.

"Calm it. Okay. Listen. Right...erm..."

Mac took a second to think up a new plan. Obviously, the fighter jet was still there and...

The fighter jet!

Mac looked at his phone, which had miraculously stayed in his hand throughout the explosions. The timer on it said 2:08.

Mac glanced at the altimeter in the plane, which was thankfully still working. It said 24,000 feet, the last two numbers going too fast to count. Ten seconds later, 23,000 feet.

"New plan Latias. Jump out of the hole in the back of the plane. You can still fly right?"

"Yep. Will I have to carry you?"

"Unless you want me to fall in the sea and die?"

"Okay. What about the other plane? Won't that come after us?"

Mac started to get out of his seat, which was more difficult than it sounded, in the dark.

"Yep. But in two minutes it'll crash, I promise. All we OH MY GOD!"

Mac screamed as a crunching noise followed his foot as he put it down. The pilot that Latias had killed had rolled forwards when Mac put the plane into a dive, and Mac had just crushed the remains of his shoulder.

It was a good job it was too dark to see, otherwise he would have thrown up. He'd seen people mangled in industrial lathes and steel cutters, but this animal attack was on a whole different level to even that.

"Sorry Mac! Sorry!"

Mac grimaced and took a more careful step forward. He tried to ignore the fact that the floor was slippery with blood, as he made his way to the door in darkness. He couldn't tell if Latias was following him, and jumped when he heard the unmistakable noise of bone snapping behind him. It was like a horror movie.

"Latias? What was that?"

"Well, you've said I've got to do some flying, and I've killed him, so I might as well eat."

"Not now! They could send another missile at any moment!"

"But I haven't had proper meat in ages and it's a waste if-"

Mac couldn't believe he was about to say this.

"If you've got to, break a bit off and chew it when we get off. But not now!"

Mac stepped out of the cockpit in the hope that Latias would follow. The moment he left, it felt a lot windier. He couldn't see more than three rows, but judging by the amount of wind in the cabin, the back of the airplane had been blown right off.

Mac knew why and considered it as more bone-snapping noises came from the cockpit. The back of the plane contained the cockpit voice recorders and black boxes. They were strong, but a direct missile strike to them would render the information in them unreadable, and therefore any evidence of the sentence. It could be kept a complete secret from the public.

Which also meant that the missile that they fired for that one wasn't meant to be the killer blow. Which meant that they were going to fire one more to actually kill him. With no one at the controls, the plane started to dive steeper, and roll. Shoes coated with blood, Mac found it harder and harder to keep a grip on the floor.

"LATIAS! WE NEED TO MOVE NOW! THEY'RE SENDING ANOTHER MISSILE!"

Latias had just finish cutting away at the pilot's thigh when she heard Mac. The pilots blood was still warm, and Latias was enjoying the familiar taste, but Mac was right. They needed to leave now, and food wasn't really top of the agenda.

She grabbed the man's leg in her teeth and shook it. With a snapping, the last few muscles twanged loose and the leg was free. She could eat that in mid air.

"Coming Mac!"

Mac heard her and started walking up the slope, to the back of the plane, as quickly as he dared. Too quickly and he could step off the plane.

Latias flew through the cockpit door and saw Mac, stood in the right-hand Isle, walking slowly forward. At some point, he'd picked up his backpack. Well good for him.

"Mac! I'm ready! We can go now!"

"Err...okay...I can't see! How far away is the hole in the plane?"

Latias looked down the rows. As far as the dividing wall, she couldn't see a way out.

"No holes here! How are we going to leave?"

Mac spied a battery-powered green light on the floor. The light that meant they had an emergency exit door on the row.

"Latias! To me! We can open this door and jump out of it now there's no pressure". Mac started to shuffle down the row until he reached the end.

Eyes adjusted to the darkness, Mac could see that they'd be leaving through the wing exit.

"Are you ready?"

"Yep. Are you?"

Mac didn't answer that question, fearing that the answer would a be a no. Instead, he smashed the emergency exit panel on the door with his fist, and turned the handle inside.

Normally, the pressure of the cabin would stop the door from being opened in mid-flight. But with the giant hole in the back of the airplane, there was no resistance, and the door fell inwards, on top of Mac. He pushed it away from him and out of the plane. With it gone, Mac had a brief few seconds to see the bizzare sight of the yellow emergency slide, which had deployed when the door was opened, and then immediately been blown back by the wind.

Mac turned around and saw Latias, with the pilots leg in her mouth. He faltered when he saw it.

"You'll be right behind me? You've got to jump out of this door right after me, and fly and catch me. As soon as I jump. Okay?"

"Yep. I'll fit through the door, don't worry."

Mac decided that 'don't worry' was the best advice he would get and didn't give himself another moment to do it, jumping out of the plane without further hesitation.

* * *

Before anyone says a plane can't fly with its back end missing, I'm an aeronautical engineer, and they can, just - as put - with a loss of the black boxes, power management controls and rear pneumatic function. In fact, your normal airliner will work almost fine if you remove the top. I can't remember the exact flight where this happened. Something makes me want to say Aloha 243. Oh, it is. Seriously cool, check it out if you can :)

Read it? Review it!


	11. Chapter 11

An7: Yeah, a classic example of 'Boy that escalated quickly'. But you've seen the fuss America are making over the Korean nuclear tests right now, right? Can you imagine how pissed England would be if they thought someone was going to give a dragon with fire breath and psychic powers to them?

* * *

Latias watched as Mac disappeared out of the doorway.

By the time Mac had come to terms with what he'd done, the wind had pushed him beyond the collapsed rear section of the plane.

He'd jumped backwards so as not to see what he was jumping into - namely nothing - and wimp out at the last minute, and so had seen everything in the brief seconds before the thrust from the still-on engines took hold and spun him every which way.

The back section of the plane wasn't so much damaged as non-existent. In the darkness of the sky, with only the moon lighting it, it was difficult to see, but Mac was pretty sure that the missile that had hit the plane had destroyed the back of it, up to the last four or five rows of passenger seats. The worst bit was, he could see specks of white that he could swear were people, or more accurately, people remains. Still tied into seats, which were straining against the floor of the airplane, the back row tipping into the abyss.

Mac saw this in the second that it took him to flash by. Pushed by 500mph winds, he covered the distance of the super jet in under a second. In four, the jet was the size of his thumb in his vision. There was no point in trying to find words for the noise. The wind, sound of the fighter jet and the engines of the plane he'd just jumped out of was loud enough to defy description.

Mac estimated he'd jumped out at 20,000 feet. The terminal velocity of a human being Mac knew to be 62 miles an hour, arms and legs out and causing as much drag as possible. Twenty thousand feet was about 4 miles. At about 60 miles an hour, Mac knew he had about 4 minutes of free fall left. Then he'd hit the sea at a lethal rate: at the speed he was at, water would have the same consistency of drying concrete.

How would Latias even find him in this darkness? He couldn't see her at all...

In the plane, Latias was trying in vain to fit through the door. The seats either side of the door stopped her from lowering her wings, and also stopped her going low enough to the ground to fit through the door with them up. She was all out of patience though. Mac was falling and - like it or not - he was her only way back home. And she had to admit, Mac was an okay person when he wasn't throwing pilots at her. Or pointing guns at people. Or trampling her kills, not listening, loosing his temper, not explaining his full plan to her, falling over, being knocked unconscious, lying a lot, generally being being hopel... Okay so there were a lot of things that he could improve on, but he wouldn't get the chance to if she didn't hurry up and get out of the plane and catch him.

The cabin was too cramped for a headbutt attack, she was too tired for a hyper beam and anyway, she didn't want to put the leg down to fire it, which she would have to. She didn't know if electrical attacks would actually make a hole in the metal plane, there wasn't any room for fighting type moves, flying moves - too cramped to fly.

Latias regretted her situation, and did the only thing she could think of, shifting into Bianca's form. Halfway through the transformation, she lost grip of the severed pilots leg. Luckily, her hands were in the way and caught it.

As soon as the transformation was complete, she walked to and out of the door, making a lot less drama about the action then Mac did.

Latias had free-fallen plenty of times, and quite a few times as Bianca, just to see what it was like.

But falling and jumping out of an plane were two separate things. Latias had never jumped out of a plane. The moment she did, it whipped away from her, barely giving her a glimpse of the wing before she was in the path of the jet engine thrust, which pushed her further away.

Just in time.

Off to her right, she heard an bang. A fifth of a second later, the door she had just jumped out of was hit by a second missile. This one was bigger, and made more of a flame than the last one.

If the heat from the engine exhaust was hot, the heat from the explosion was immense. As Latias got blown further back, she saw the fireball bloom on the inside of the cabin, before bursting out of the hole in the rear.

The sound from the engines turned into a jarring noise as the fan blades expanded by a hair's width and jammed against the fan casing, not that Latias could hear it. Her ears were still ringing from the explosion.

In the cockpit of the jet fighter, the pilot turned in his seat. His helmet was fitted with augmented reality lenses, and overlayed radar, thermal, meteorological and altimeter data in to his field of vision. He'd turned around because the computer had tagged two objects on radar that had heat signatures behind him, and that meant two targets had survived.

While it was true there were lots of things on radar - namely, parts of shattered tail rudder and airliner - the two things were odd. They both had appeared inbetween the two missiles hitting the plane, and the heat signature was fluctuating. Not decreasing, Going up and down. Like a heartbeat. So the computer had flagged it as a living target.

Radar had a range of 60 miles, but the thermal camera was limited to 2. So the pilot had to turn around and pursue them before they got far away.

Mac, meanwhile, was still falling. He'd noted that he and the airplane were both falling at the same rate, and so it was still level with him, just quite a lot further away. Therefore it too would hit the ground in three and three-quarter minutes as well.

There was a single light in the sky, moving too dynamically to tell what direction it was going in or how far away it was, but Mac was pretty sure it was the fighter jet, apparently still tracking the airplane he'd jumped out of.

Mac had fallen for 20 seconds, and Latias had been notably absent. He didn't really mind, she could take her time for all he cared, and he still had another three minutes and forty seconds to go before hitting the ground. Latias could easily get to him, as long as she left the plane before it was hit by another missile.

Twenty-one seconds into free-falling, Mac saw the speck that he'd assigned the status of 'passenger plane' to, flash bright orange. Then nothing. Then an even brighter flash.

Mac started counting in his head.

One...two..- The boom from the explosion reached Mac, nowhere near as loud for him as it was for Latias.

The plane was two and a half seconds away by the speed of sound, or roughly 800 meters away. Mac also realised that his tenancy to do maths at life-or-death times was probably a habit he would have to break out of.

Mac stopped calculating distance, and started fearing for his life.

The plane had exploded. Granted, it was still probably intact, but judging by the size of that fireball, if Latias was inside at the time, she would be toast. Literally. Carbonated granules.

Mac was amazed at the missile in a way that would probably get him locked up in a lunatic asylum. But he could see how it would work. Missile filled with napalm and an explosive gas. Fire it into the side of the plane and let it penetrate the skin of the aircraft, then make it spray flammable gas and napalm everywhere. Then ignite it and the room would reach flash over point - the moment at which the very oxygen in the air combusts. Bang, everything in the plane dead in under a second. And no trace of explosives, as the case and napalm would be completely burned up by the flash over. The perfect weapon.

Mac worried a bit more, the panic amounting exponentially with every second. He'd been falling for thirty seconds, but the explosion had made him doubt Latias making it out. And how was she going to find him in the dark?

Latias transformed the moment she stopped staring at the explosion. This time when she dropped the leg, her arms where tucked into her sides and stayed there as the snack fell to earth.

"Oh no you don't!" Latias quipped, glad to use her own voice, as she dived after it.

In the fighter jet, the pilot was confused. The second dot that the computer had identified as a target had just disappeared from radar. The thermal camera said it was there, but the radar said it had split in two. And it wouldn't track the target in that situation, so he'd had to do it manually with his eyes.

The target started catching up to the other part of it, before joining back up again, flying against the turbulence for a while, then turning back the other way and chasing after the other target.

Latias had caught up with the leg, conveniently forgetting about the hi-tech jet fighter that was bouncing radar off her and reading her heartbeat. Her feathers absorbed the radar bounces, but did nothing to disguise her heartbeat.

She started racing back towards the plane, finally focused on Mac. Then she turned around and realised he'd be in the other direction unless he'd decided to chill on the wing for a bit.

She scanned the sky for him as she flew closer and closer to where he jumped out. After 400 meters, she saw a speck of heat, falling quickly towards the ocean. There were too many smells up here to see if his scent was around, but who else would jump out of a plane?

Mac's hopes lifted as he heard a squealing sound above the noise of the wind. He couldn't see where from though, Latias was too small to see in this darkness until she was about fifty meters away.

Latias covered that distance quickly, and in no time ended up diving down next to Mac, who shouted over to her as she arrived.

"YOU TOOK YOUR SWEET TIME!"

Ordinarily, a conversation wouldn't be possible in these situations, the wind noise would be too great. But Mac wasn't free-falling with another human, he was falling with a dragon, specially adapted for these circumstances. She psychiced him back.

"Just be glad I'm here. Did you see that explosion?"

"Well, yes, but now you're here, would you mind stopping me from falling? In case you don't realise, I can't fly. I'd be nice to have some solid ground under me."

"How's solid dragon?"

"Just let me sit on your back."

Latias was already on the case, flying underneath him and slowing down slightly. She didn't stop immediately, because he would hit her quickly and that would be painful.

Gently, Mac landed on her back, hugging the soft feathers the moment he could reach. It wasn't particularly for comfort, more to stop him falling off her, but she took it as a sign that Mac wanted a hug.

"Awwww! Is the little human cold?"

The answer, Mac was well aware of, was yes. But he put off that particular inconvenience to check his phone. If it had been damaged, they wouldn't have GPS and he would have no idea which way to go then.

Mac glanced up at the direction he thought the fighter jet was in whilst his phone unlocked, but the sky was dark. The other plane had probably all burnt out, and the jet must have assumed the fugitives had gone with it, and returned to base.

And if the authorities thought they were dead, then they wouldn't be looking for them any more! They'd escaped! And for real this time!

Unfortunately, reality issued a slap to the face for Mac. The fighter jet hadn't returned to base, it was just facing towards him so the tell-tale glow from the engines was facing away.

There was the sound akin to that of a firework being let off, and Latias set off away from it without warning, Mac and the phone barely making it along with her. In seconds, she was at 300 miles an hour, all concerns for Mac's ability to hold on nullified. She needed to go fast, or the jet and whatever it had just fired would catch up with her.

It was so fast and so exposed Mac couldn't open his mouth, only bury his face against Latias neck to try and abate the wind. His hoodie's hood was already up, fortunately, and it dampened the wind somewhat. What the hell had spooked Latias that badly?

Latias answered his question even though he hadn't asked it, psychic voice sounding weak because of the effort needed to fly as fast as she was. And still accelerating.

"That bad plane. It's still following us. I thought you said it was going to turn off?"

Mac had, but clearly there was still some time left. Surely no more than a few seconds. He couldn't take his phone out of his pocket at this speed, but he was sure it wouldn't be that long. Then again, it didn't need to be.

"Hold tight, he's gaining!"

Latias kicked it up a notch, but it was clear that the fighter would easily beat her in a straight line while she had the world's most unaerodynamic human on her back. She'd have to try to out-maneuver it. At speed.

What was the firework noise though?

The question was answered a second later when the sky lit up bright. Very bright. The pilot had fired a flare, but for what purpose, Latias didn't know.

Then the flare began flashing, quickly. It was confusing, the light being there one minute and not the next. She supposed it was meant to be disorientating, but she navigated using earth's magnetic field and it wasn't very effective.

On her back, it was a different story. Mac was utterly confused about what was going on. The strobe light had ruined his night vision and was too bright to see in at the same time, even when he had his head pressed into Latias.

Latias looked behind to see how close the fighter was. It came a shock to see it about fifty meters away, and closing in.

In the cabin, the pilot looked at Latias and Mac through the thermal camera, and blinked twice. A virtual red triangle encapsulated them. Another blink, the box turned yellow. Target selected. He flipped a red cover on the joystick, before pressing down the switch underneath it.

Latias heard the world's loudest pop directly behind her. Was the jet firing at her?

She did a rapid turn upwards, tilting her wings and feeling the force on her back as Mac was pushed at 8 times the force of gravity into her. It was equivalent to the 70 kilo human weighing 430 kilos. But she kept the turn, and rotated 90 degrees in twenty feet. Any less and the g-force would have been lethal to Mac.

As it was, he'd already almost passed out. It was so fast, he wasn't able to be sick like most people were, the contents of his stomach being pushed towards his chest by the g-force and down by the acceleration. It was - Mac would decide later at a less perilous time - like being sat on by the world biggest elephant.

Latias was built for those kind of forces and didn't think twice about it other than for the extra weight on her back. In contrast, the turn almost seemed slow. On the plus side, they were now facing upwards, away from the fighter.

In the fighter, the computer was running through procedures at a rate of 28 million calculations a second, and it still couldn't figure out where the target went. One moment it was in view, the next, it had jumped a seemingly impossible space upwards. The computer assumed it wasn't the same target, and removed it from the list of things to be shot down.

The missile relied upon a laser beam from the fighter to find its target. With the computer deciding that the target had disappeared, the laser was switched off, and the missile went unguided directly forwards, much to the pilot's confusion.

His target had seemingly turned directly up, on the spot. So quickly that by the time he realised this, he was already a few hundred meters forward from where it had done the turn.

Latias heard the missile go past her with a snapping noise, the crack of it breaking the sound barrier after launch. But it continued below her and judging by the noise, was carrying on going away from her. Then the jet went past as well, almost like it was following the missile. Latias chuckled. They had all this fancy technology, but it was no match for her, even when she was hindered by a human lying on her back.

She continued turning backwards, just slower and using her flippers to aid the turn. It was still lightning fast, but it wasn't quite the 8g's Mac had just suffered. In two seconds, she had completed the turn and was now one hundred meters behind the jet, the air warm from its exhaust.

It was the safest place in Latias' opinion. From what she gathered, it could only attack from it's front. And it wouldn't be able to see behind itself, so it should carry on straight until it either shut down, like Mac said, or she did something to stop it.

The pilot looked above and around for the targets, but they'd disappeared. The consequences when he returned to base would not be nice if he'd not taken them out though, so he kept a low speed and looked around in radar and thermal. After a few seconds, he thought of looking behind himself.

The heat map was partly whited out by the engine exhaust fumes, but the radar had a small blip on it, and there was a small dot of heat difference that looked worthy of investigation. He switched back to visible light for confirmation. The flare was still flashing, and in between flashes his target was clearly visible on the camera.

Clearly, the thing he was engaging was too agile for missiles, he'd have to be further away. But there was one more weapon in his arsenal, a prototype.

He flipped up his visor and looked to the place in the cockpit he knew would be marked 'LASER'. And flicked it.

Latias decided whatever Mac said he'd done to the plane, it hadn't worked, and decided to take matters into her own hands, and tackle the plane herself instead. Just as she started to accelerate, a beam of light zipped past her, missing by a matter of millimeters and feeling immensely hot. She dodged to the side as the light disappeared a second later. It looked like a powerful, but artificial, hyper beam.

The pilot was struggling with the controls. Not only was the thing apparently getting closer, it was moving side to side very quickly and the lack of a thermal target because of the engine washout meant he had to aim manually. He blinked twice and fired another laser beam the moment the generator had brought it back to full power.

Another beam of light zipped past Latias, but this one was further away, even though she was getting closer. Well enough was enough.

With one final boost, she flew within biting range of the planes wing. A second later, and she was above it. The laser thing that was firing at her was on the underneath and so was unable to hit her, as she was hidden by the wings. Neither could the missiles get her, because they were mounted on the underneath. Knowing she was safe, she matched the airplane's speed, and started biting the wing, trying to find some way to disable it. It was just like a big bird, after all, and Latias had hunted birds before. It took just a few bites to kill them.

The fighter pilot couldn't believe what he was seeing. If it what the camera was showing him was true, the dragon-like thing was attacking his aircraft by biting it. And there was the other target, clinging to it's neck!

Latias flew to the edge of the wing and started trying to bite the edge off. But the material wasn't like skin, or leather. It was a metal, and it took several attempts just to make a dent in it. But she persevered, and after a few tries, a small triangle of wing fell away. But not much else happened.

Mac realised where they were and shouted into her neck.

"LATIAS! THE MOVING THINGS ON THE BACK OF THE WING! SEE IF YOU CAN TEAR THOSE OFF! THEY'RE MORE IMPORTANT TO FLYING, AND WEAKER!"

Latias heard and flew around, just as another noise dropped out.

In Mac's pocket, the timer on his phone ticked over to zero.

In the cockpit of the fighter jet, a warning tone started to buzz. The pilot looked across the physical control panel, to see a single light flashing red. If that was right, it said the engine was spinning down. Switching off. Which was impossible, because he hadn't told it to. Perhaps it was just an error caused by the target being on his wing. He pressed the mute button and carried on.

On the wing of the plane, it was starting to cool down. The engine was indeed switching off, and the afterburner had already closed off. With that and the wind blowing over them, it began to get cooler. Latias carried on though, and started biting at the bits of metal at the back of the wing that were fluttering up and down rapidly, the computer making thousands of decisions to move them and obtain the perfect angle for flight.

Not that it mattered, because in three solid bites, Latias had separated the entire flap from the wing, sending it spinning into the blackness the moment it was free. Instantly, the plane started to rotate clockwise.

Another warning rang out in the cabin, this one telling the pilot one of the ailerons had failed. Most things failed when Latias had chewed on them for a while.

Fed up, the pilot decided to do what he should have done the moment the target had caught up with him, and accelerated away. He moved the throttle leaver forwards ten percent, expecting a huge jolt of power. But if anything, it felt like he was going slower. Decelerating.

A glance at the engine speed indicator confirmed this. The engine wasn't responding to his instructions, instead opting to shut down. Even now the thrust it was providing was insufficient, because they were starting to loose altitude.

Mac shouted to Latias again, noticing the loss of heat and engine noise.

"THE ENGINE'S OFF! WE CAN LEAVE NOW, THERE'S NO WAY HE CAN FIRE ANYTHING WITHOUT ANY POWER!"

Mac was right. The turbine inside the plane needed to be running for enough power to start any missiles. Lights flashed on in the cockpit to report the loss of power, to go out a second later when the jet lost power altogether. To save on weight, the fighter only had batteries that would provide power for millisecond interruptions.

Latias pulled upwards and away from the fighter as it made its almost silent descent towards the water. If the wind hadn't overwritten it, Mac would have been able to hear the whistling noise as it plummeted.

In the cabin, the pilot gave up and pulled the eject handle. He had failed in his mission, and ejecting wasn't going to help him achieve it, but it would send out an emergency beacon so he could be picked up. That was, if they wanted to. Perhaps they'd just leave him bobbing up and down in the ocean until he starved as a punishment. And to stop him telling anyone about the whole 'dragon test subject' thing.

It was a good thing he had packed one of those cyanide pills...

* * *

Wow, that last sentence was grim... Could you do me a favor? Hit that review button? Type some words about what you thought about, this chapter?

Also, readers. I'm pleased to announce that, as of March 4th, I will be signed on to a project to create cheap hydroelectric power generators and water filters for developing 3rd world countries such as Cambodia. It's unbelievably exciting, and I can't wait to start, but after that, uploads will slow down for the foreseeable because the workload is MA-HU-SIVE. Just giving some advanced warning and letting out my excitement. Eek!


	12. Chapter 12

On the jet-fighter issues: Most of the missiles are virtual - they don't exist on the airplane, but the pilot has the option to command them, I. E. He can press a button and it will launch from a remote location, guided by the pilot. I was going to explain that in-story, but it was a bit of a thing to shoe-horn in there. MACM is a very generic term that does exist but isn't a specific missile. I left it specific because I forgot the name of the napalm bomb.

M-Rating: Technically, anything involving a description of dismemberment will classify a story as 'M', no matter how breif.

I'm now working in the uberman sleep schedule. 20 minutes sleep every 3 hours, no sleep longer than half an hour. Hence the tired theme that you'll probably notice in the next few chapters.

* * *

"How much longer?" Latias asked Mac, getting seriously concerned for her health. Her stomach was empty. She wasn't running out of energy, she was out of it entirely. Whatever reserves she was running on, they too would run out soon.

Mac wasn't any better. He'd been flying on Latias' back for two hours. His phone battery was almost dead. And the guilt of the previous day's activities hung on him like a physical weight.

Because they were travelling across the equator and east, they had gone through the night alarmingly fast. It was now day, though Mac wasn't sure what day. His phone said the time was one in the morning, not adjusted to the new time zones.

"Mac? Mac?"

"Just...give me a sec..."

Mac fumbled for the GPS. His hands were cold, too cold to operate the device accurately. After an hour of breathing diluted oxygen, he couldn't think straight. And was prone to being distracted.

During the night he hadn't thought about it, but in the bright of day he replayed the bright flash of light of the second explosion, the giant hole in the back of the plane with bodies hanging out, the blood all over the cockpit, the crunch of bone as Latias tore the limb from the pilot...all his fault.

"Wait...Latias. I'm..." Mac had already forgotten what he was doing.

"Where ARE we Mac?"

"Yeah...I know." He tried for a second time, tapping the GPS icon. This time the touch registered.

The phone loaded a map and Mac had to rub his eyes to read it. They were so dry from flying without a windshield, but a few glances later confirmed it.

The arrow that was them was less than three miles to the black box that said NORTH KOREA (BMQ).

"Latias! We're almost there! Three miles!"

Latias didn't celebrate. It was three miles more than she wanted. And why couldn't she see any land? It would just be her luck that Mac had taken them to a place that was entirely sea.

Three miles passed in silence. Still no land in sight. Almost nothing changed except for a bizzare wall of cloud that they'd flown straight through, which was probably just the result of some weird air current. On the other side, the scenery was the same. No cloud. No land. Just sea below them.

"Mac? Where can I land?"

Mac's phone failed to provide an answer. The moment they'd entered the black box, the GPS signal had failed. He was relying on Latias' internal compass alone.

Latias had had it. If they went another mile with nowhere to land, she was going to tip Mac off her. He was a good person, but his weight was almost too much to carry now she was this tired.

In the distance, she heard a screeching noise. Was she imagining it? Must be. There was nothing to see. Nothing new below them. In front of them, nothing. There was a small speck of blackness on the horizon. Really could just be an illusion. Yeah. Her brain was so starved of food, she was seeing black dots in her vision.

She blinked, but the dot didn't move. She looked right, and the dot appeared to go left. Staying in the same place relative to her body, not her sight. So it was real.

The screeching noise again. It was louder now. Closer. Latias could identify it as more of a roar. And was there some poke speak intonations in it?

Mac heard too.

"Latias? What was that? You hear it too?"

Latias' eyes widened as she realised what - or who - it could be. It wasn't Latios, no. She'd hoped, but it was blatantly not him. Way too big, way too loud.

"HERE! I'M LATIAS! OVER HERE! LATIAS! HELLO?"

Latias started shouting. It was a custom that you shouted your own name when you met someone, and if it was who she thought it was, it would definitely be an advantage that he knew who she was.

The dot started getting bigger. The way it was moving made it look like a very quick snake, slithering through the air towards her. It got close enough for Latias to make out, which was close enough for Mac to see the dot.

"Look Latias! In the sky! What is it?"

Latias didn't answer. Mac would know soon enough. She continued shouting.

"HERE! I'M LATIAS! TIRED! HUNGRY! FRIEND!"

The shape got bigger, and Mac made out what it was. Who it was.

Rayquaza.

With a roar, the giant green half-lizard came to a stop, a meter short of Latias' snout. The roar meant something, but only Latias understood it.

"Little girl lost? Latias?"

Mac was petrified. One moment, there was clear sky. Then this giant green thing with giant teeth in its giant mouth was directly in front of him, the mouth easily as big as Mac standing up. As for how long it was, that would have to be measured in miles. This thing could swallow him and he'd never touch the sides. Along its body were what looked like barbed plates of armour. As for the roar: Deafening. His ears rang so hard that he barely heard Latias' response.

"Yes! I'm Latias! Not lost, Kidnapped. We're back in the world of pokemon?" Latias replied with a giggly voice, finally glad to have another member of the animal kingdom to talk to. And a male one at that.

This time, when Rayquaza spoke, he did it mostly in the ultrasonic range with his mouth closed, so Mac couldn't hear the communication even if he had understood it.

"Ah. Yes. Nice to see you in the flesh! Did you like your visit to the rest of earth?"

"No. Everyone was scary. Except this guy. His name is Mac"

"Mac..." Rayquaza growled, also moving closer to him. Mac still had his head bunched up into Latias' feathers.

"Is this what males are like now?"

"He's just scared. He's never seen pokemon before." her voice, while giggly, sounded accusing. Like Rayquaza was somehow responsible.

He moved his head back and closer to Latias' snout so she could hear better.

"What?"

"Don't play with me. Why have I never heard of countries before? Why didn't we know about these other places that didn't have pokemon in? Our maps never showed the rest of the world! Why are we called Korea?"

"Ahh...that's complicated."

"Try me."

"You look tired. Want a restore?"

"I'm more hungry."

"Well sorry. There's a sea down there if you want to hunt."

"Humans drown. I can't hunt with him on my back". She moved her head to indicate Mac, who was peeking up at Rayquaza with one eye. Another glance sent him hugging Latias' feathers again.

"Yeah. They do..."

"So?"

"So what?"

"Are you going to tell me why pokemon don't exist outside our place. And why does no one come in or out of our place?"

"Ugh. Okay. Ready? It's a bit long?"

"Get on with it."

"Watch yourself. A weak young female, shouldn't really be bossing me around."

Latias flew back a foot. She was for Latios, and while he probably wasn't serious, she didn't put the threat past him. Males. All the same.

"Sorry. Right. So, a few hundred years ago, pokemon existed here. Just like they do today. Because the climate was mostly okay, we never really strayed out, and all was good blah blah blah. But at this time, a few centuries ago, humans came in to our place. And we learnt something."

Latias flew back in, interested. "Yes?"

"Humans, about one in ten, carried a virus, and although it was the same virus, it was made up ever so slightly different for each human. These days they call it Pokérus. With a few humans, we were fine. Pokérus in itself is not inherently lethal. But more and more came to see us, because we never left this place of ours. Eventually, so many pokemon were getting so many different strains of Pokérus, they began to die. And that only got worse as more humans arrived and more Pokérus strains entered."

"Oh..."

"To stop us dying out altogether, we had no choice but to stop humans coming in altogether. And when I say 'we', I mean the legendaries. Groudon, Kyogre, Lugia - your kind-of cousin uncle - Arceus, the three birds...those legendaries are the ones who decided to put a plan in action. Groudon put impassable mountains between here and the other countries, Kyogre made dangerous and unchartable seas, and Lugia... Well I'll be honest, he didn't do much. You guys weren't involved in this by the way."

"Huh."

"Anyway, humans couldn't get in for a few centuries and all was good. Then they invented air flight, and I decided to help, by destroying anything that flew over the impassible mountains or uncharitable waters. The humans got the picture that we didn't want them here, and blamed someone else for why everything that they sent decided to mysteriously explode. I think they call them Korea. Or China, I'm not sure."

"Mac did say that. He says 500 years ago that everything coming in and out of here just stopped."

"That'll be it then. Yep, about 500 years ago."

"So how come I've only heard of this now?"

"Well, one, you only hatched, what, two hundred years ago?"

Latias nodded her head.

"And two, could you imagine what would happen if we told people inside here that there was something outside? Or the people outside, something in? Humans are stupid, but there are billions of them. And they'd stop at nothing to get in. Or out. Simply because they were curious."

There was a silence.

"Can Mac stay?"

Rayquaza made a humming noise.

"I can't see why not, really. It's really just one extra type of pokerus, we can put up with that. But not what's in his bag. I don't want him telling any of the rest of his species about here. It's our last safe haven. He's helped you across the world, so he's kind at heart, but all the same..."

Latias could hardly argue with that condition. She turned around to Mac and psychiced him.

"Mac! We're almost home! This is my friend! He's a friend! He says you can stay, but only if you get rid of the bag!"

Despite most of his life being contained in the bag, he sat up and glided it off his shoulders with no more promoting.

"I see. And the giant green lizard said this?"

"His name is Rayquaza."

"Are all pokemon like him?"

"No. We're a lot smaller. Now are you going to throw the bag away or not?"

Mac shrugged his shoulder and let go of the bag. It tumbled off Latias' neck and fell towards the sea below. "Okay then." Mac didn't really care what he gave up any more. He was already responsible for the deaths of so many people, and it looked like a giant gecko was going to eat him too. The bag could contain a thousand gold bars and Mac couldn't have cared.

Rayquaza looked back at Latias.

"Don't humans normally hate having blood on them?"

Latias' snout was matted with blood, but other than that, she was fine. Mac's clothes, on the other hand, we're soaked with it. Most of it was from in the cockpit when Latias had effectively mauled the pilots, but parts of it were his own.

Latias turned back to look. Mac's hoodie - once an attractive shade of Latios blue - was now a brown smudge.

"We've been through a lot to get here. It's a shame, I liked that shade of blue."

Rayquaza picked up the longing in her voice and decided to tease her for a bit.

"Awww..someone longing for their mate?"

"And? I'll be with him soon, right?"

"Sooner than you think. Speaking of Latios, I saw him a week ago. He was flying around like a mad thing."

"Looking for me?"

"I can only guess. But he looked pretty panicked."

Latias' heart fluttered. He had been looking for her! He did care!

"Is he at home? In Alto Mare?"

"I haven't seen him around lately since that, so I guess so. What's the deal with you guys, why's it taking so long? I was honestly expecting to see little Latis zipping around and trying to hyper beam me by now. What's the hold up?"

"Hey! It's my choice when to have children! Anyway, you don't know what it's like living with humans. They don't like inter-family relationships."

"Pah. Living with humans...Latias, You're not human. You can have offspring whenever you like, with whoever you like."

"Why do you even care? You never even turn up anyway. You'd be the worst uncle ever. This is the first time I've ever even seen you!"

"Would the worst uncle ever do this?"

Latias' vision flickered for a second, a sweeping bar of light passed from the top to the bottom of it, then resumed. Nothing seemed to have changed except the wind was now blowing in a different direction.

"I don't get it. What did you do?"

"You were more than 200 miles from your little garden. I've just teleported you half a mile west of Alto Mare. You're welcome."

Latias sniffed the air. They were quite low down, so there was the unmistakable smell of Alto Mare lingering in the air, carried on the breeze. Fish...buildings...humans...

"NO WAY!" Latias screeched and flew in a circle, reared up against Rayquaza and rubbed her snout against his flat, intimidating face. It prompted a deep noise inside his throat that might have been a chuckle.

"No problem, anything for a pretty little girl."

Latias was already starting to fly away, head rapidly looking between Rayquazza and the East, where she knew home was.

"Don't try anything! I'll tell Latios!"

"Make sure you do! Next time I see you I want you to be teaching some offspring how to fly!"

Latias was too far away though, tracking the smell of the town. It hadn't changed a bit. Her fatigue was still there, just dented by the smell of home.

"Latias? What just happened there?"

In her rush, she'd almost forgotten completely about Mac.

"Oh, him. He's scary. But cool I guess. Sorry for the quick answer, but look Mac! My home!"

In a few seconds, the town came into sight. They were approaching from the pier side, and Latias suddenly halted with half a mile to go.

"Ohhhhhhh!"

"What?"

"Loads of people. I can't fly you over without them seeing you."

"Latias, let's be honest, in the great scheme of things that have happened to me today, being spotted flying over an island will not be the most bizzare. You're tired, let's just get you to your..." Mac realised he didn't know where Latias slept. Nest? Cave? House? She took advantage of the fact and nipped back at him out loud.

"Mate!"

Mac was caught off guard.

"Yeah...mate... So you can rest, and then we'll deal with any accusations later."

Latias didn't really need to be told twice. She turned her feathers around so at least she was invisible, then set off towards the garden, so low to the ground that they'd skim across the rooftops. While it meant that no one on the ground would see them for long enough due to the narrow streets, it also meant Mac didn't have time to see the place he'd be living in, before they'd landed in the garden. Latias lowered herself to the ground in a clearing, allowing Mac to jump off, before flying to the nearest tree and chewing down leaves as fast as she could.

Latias didn't care what kind of leaves they were. She was hungry, and wanted to meet Latios while her stomach wasn't trying to kill her with pain.

Mac watched with a smile as Latias stripped almost every leaf from the tree. She looked happy. He'd thought he'd seen her happy at least once or twice while they were in England, but nothing like that compared to this. Her body looked less rigid, and she was posed in a constant curve while she ate, not eating the leaves in any order but just randomly, flying one from tree to the next. In about a minute, she'd eaten two trees worth. Not enough to fill her, but enough to not be painfully hungry.

Satisfied, she locked onto Latios' scent. She was surprised that he hadn't come to welcome her, since he smelt near, but perhaps he was sleeping. They were meant to be nocturnal, after all.

Perhaps it would be her turn to suprise him.

Mac watched as Latias paused infront of a tree, and then flew away, ducking and weaving inbetween the other trees. Mac was suddenly alone.

"Latias? Hello?"

No response. Did she sense a threat? Perhaps she wanted him to follow?

He set off in the same direction she flew off in. After about fifty meters, he reached another, smaller clearing. And didn't expect what he saw there.

In the clearing was a sobering sight.

The first thing he saw was a blue version of a bigger Latias. It was curved around, and it's wings were folded over something. It's eyes - which Mac could just about see - were closed, but was that a tear running down one eye?

The dragon was muddy. And there was a lot of blood on it. Whatever it had done to get in that state, it must have done a lot of bad things. Mac looked at himself and drew parallels immediately. A chocked crying noise made him stop and look back at the blue dragon.

Even worse, tucked in under the wing, Mac saw a girl. It was Latias, in her human form. She too was crying, but more openly. There was a beret on the floor which had clearly fallen off her head, and if Mac had been in a better emotional state, he'd have realised Latias didn't own a beret.

But he wasn't. He was wrecked. Worn out, self pitying, and above all, evil. He'd caused the deaths of hundreds to get here, and when he did, people were crying. Animals were crying. Why?

Mac fell backwards. Didn't stop himself, just fell. There was soft undergrowth behind him, but even so, his head hurt when he hit it. Not that he cared.

All was still bar the noise of the leaves on the trees. Then Mac heard a breathing sound and tried to recompose himself. It was blatantly Latias, and it sounded like she was sniffing the ground, getting closer to him. Closer. Closer. Then.

"Mac?". The coo sounded awed as Latias' face filled Mac's vision. Mac didn't even flinch.

"Latias? Weren't you with your 'mate'? Under his wing?"

"No, that's my owner. She's asleep. Poor her, crying in her sleep. They look so sweet, right? I want to wake Latios, but I don't have a gift for him. I can't find one."

"Gift?". The word escaped Mac for a second.

"Yeah. I want him to be my mate. I need a gift."

"You know him better than me."

"I can't hunt anything, I'm meant to get him something fruity or pretty, like the female should. Besides, it's got to be something new and exciting. Look, on the floor, he'd got me something. But I can't find anything new or exciting here. I need something to swap with him."

Mac thought for a second, and even sat up, but nothing came to mind. Only the rustle of the trees and the jangle of his hoodie pocket when he sat up.

The jangle of his...

Mac reached into his pocket and pulled out a red packet. He'd purchased it on the train...last year? Yesterday? Today? So much had happened, but it was only today. Yesterday if you counted the time difference. Just.

Latias saw it and snatched the bag of skittles out of his hand with her mouth.

"Thanks Mac! He'll love this!"

Mac wasn't sure he would, but was beyond caring. As Latias flew to her partner on the grass, Mac decided he might as well stand up to watch their reunion. He did so, pulling himself up with the aid of a tree, and leaning on it once he was up. It was about all he could do.

When he did, he saw Latias floating above her partner, a foot above and parralel to him, leaning down with her snout.

"Latios? Latios?"

Latias nudged her brothers snout. But instead of opening an eye, he just made a desperate - but quiet - wailing noise. Why? He had missed her? Yes. But now she was here!

She dropped the sweet packet that was in her mouth at the side, and tried again.

"Latios! It's really me! Latias! I'm back! Hello!?" The coo wasn't excited, it was soft. Caring.

She laid down opposite her brother and started rubbing her snout along the end of his, making her scent as strong as possible, all the time making gentle cooing noises. It sounded like the noise that could only be generated by a mother telling its children that everything was just fine.

Latios twitched his ear. He could swear he heard Latias. Cooing to him. How he had missed that voice...it was so...wonderful.

And now, he could smell her scent. Stronger because she was in heat. It was too perfect to be real, and Latias chocked back a howl as he realised his brain must be playing tricks. Latias wasn't going to come back. Even if she was, she wasn't going to be his mate. He had failed to find her. He didn't deserve her.

But...it was a very good trick if it was. There was something...actually rubbing his snout. It sounded like Latias. It had Latias' scent. And only Latias could be that soft.

He opened his eyes and saw two identical orange eyes look back.

"Latias?!"

Mac saw the moment and grinned. Latios looked completely taken aback, like what he was seeing wasn't real. But it was. Mac had done it, he realised. The pair were reunited. Mac was looking forward to the moment where they'd exchange gifts, but reality brought him back to the moment, as an old, unsure voice spoke behind him, quietly, barely audible over the sound of the shotgun being ratcheted.

"I want you to turn around, nice and easy, and put your hands where I can see them."

* * *

BONUS HAIKU (I call it, "People are blurs"):

People are blurs. Until they get hit by a train. Then they are a smears.

Guess who had a grim commute home one day.


	13. Chapter 13

"What do you mean I can't plug my 5W phone into your 30,000W train? THIS IS ENGLAND PAL! YOU CANT TELL ME WHAT TO DO!"  
I was doing welding this week, and got arc-eye. Not nice. Even worse when you have norovirus at the same time. Horrible... Bleh *internal organs fall out*

* * *

Unaware of Mac's peril just a few meters away, Latias playfully licked Latios' cheek. It was the final bit of proof for Latios. This Latias was 100% the real Latias.

Latios flew backwards and up, claws out and mouth open, but totally speechless. The movement rolled Bianca off his wing, and she woke with a snorting noise.

"What was that!?". She started to turn around and see where Latios had gone, but stopped when she caught a glimpse of Latias. A double take confirmed it.

"Latias!?"

Latias flew to her and did an affectionate rub on the cheek. "Yep! Me!"

Bianca responded by bringing her hand around and hugging Latias' head towards her neck. Latios was still coming to terms with the whole event.

Latias was actually here? Th-

'CLICK'

The sound wasn't every loud, but it didn't have to be for Latios. It was artificial, and sounded dangerous in his opinion. In an instant he'd locked onto it and was already in the process of eliminating it, lest it try and harm Bianca or the recently appeared Latias.

Lorenzo had heard Latios squealing behind the man he'd found stalking in the garden, but ignored it until the man was dealt with.

He'd gone in the garden with the intention of looking at Latios. But when he couldn't find Bianca anywhere in the house, he began to worry. Even if she was going out, she normally left a note. But the fact that she hadn't made a bad feeling creep down his neck. Bianca - though still somewhat childish - was mature about issues like that. The only reason that she'd not have left one is if she hadn't planned on leaving the grounds.

He'd taken a few logical steps, what with recent events, to reach the conclusion that team Rocket - or more accurately, her mother - had kidnapped her.

And so, he'd sneaked into the garden, taking the gun for protection in case they'd sent someone for him too. And he'd found whoever it was. He was wearing some kind of hoodie, but it looked odd, caked in some kind of dried liquid. As he'd got closer, Lorenzo saw that the hoodie was meant to be blue, but had at some point been immersed in a large amount of blood. Coupled with the fact he was in the hidden garden, it was enough evidence for him to say the man was part of Team Rocket or similar evil force.

Mac slowly turned around and faced Lorenzo, not really quite believing that he was still having a gun pointed at him. Lorenzo was completely out of his element, unsure what to do next.

Really, even pointing the gun at another human felt horrible. Then again, he had broken into the garden and was covered in blood.

"Wh...what?" Mac stuttered.

"You know what. Stay there, keep your hands where I can see them. And if you've put Latios in this state, I'm tempted to let him at you."

Lorenzo had decided to deal with Latios first, since the noise sounded completely bizzare. He sounded happy. Happy? Latios hadn't been happy in ages. Had the man drugged him? Keeping the gun facing at Mac, he had walked around him and looked towards the clearing.

Two things happened.

First, Lorenzo saw what was actually happening in the clearing. Latios was floating vertically, arms out, looking shocked at Bianca. It was really amazing considering that he hadn't even raised a wing for a week. Bianca was kneeling down, tears in her eyes, with Latias cooing in her arms. Lorenzo saw Latias, but by the time he realised what this actually meant, the other thing had happened.

The motion of Lorenzo moving around Mac had ever so slightly moved the safety switch on the shotgun. It was on, but a slight hand twitch on Lorenzo's part was enough to jog it out of position and into deadly.

It was this click that Latios heard.

Latios saw Lorenzo, and the gun, but his aura was more worried than violent or harmful. He quickly ignored him and looked at the only other human in his vision. It was a boy. Grubby looking, slouching and looking directly at Latias. Well, Latias wasn't his, whoever he was. If he was thinking of doing anything to her, he could forget it.

Latios accelerated further, tucked in his arms, and slammed into the unknown boy as hard as he could, stopping a moment after impact. The boy didn't, and flew through the air, carried on, before hitting a tree at an angle, slowing down as he pin-wheeled off it, and hitting another tree, which he mercifully hit edge-on. Instead of spinning off again, he reached a slouching stop at the foot of the tree, knocked out cold.

Silence. That Bianca soon broke.

"Who was that guy? Lorenzo, why have you got the shotgun?"

As Latios flew back to Latias and they started rubbing heads, Lorenzo asked his own questions, laying the shotgun down on the floor.

"How did Latias get here?"

"How would I know? One moment I was with Latios, the next, she just appeared. With that." Bianca pointed to the bag of skittles Latias had dropped on the ground.

While the humans talked, the dragons sounded silent. They weren't, but the sound was just inaudible to humans.

Latias was hovering two feet off the ground, obviously tired. Latios had flown back to her, having just hit Mac into the tree, and was rubbing his snout next to hers.

"It's okay, he's gone."

Latias wasn't listening to the words, his voice was enough to calm her. She was safe. Back with Latios. In the garden. Everything was fine. All she'd need now was a sleep, with Latios protecting her, and everything would be back to normal.

"Where did you go?"

Latias snapped back to what Latios was saying.

"I...I don't know. I'm so tired."

It was true, she was. Up until the moment Latios had arrived, she was buzzing to give him his gift. But now he was here, she just wanted to enjoy the moment. Looking at his wings, nice and big and blue. His voice, deep and attractive...

Latios was happy. He realised, happiness hadn't been a thing he'd had for weeks. Too long without Latias. He'd spent too long looking after her gift and not enough time actually finding her, or giving her the gift.

"Latias?"

"Yes?" Latias moved her snout away from him and looked him in the eyes.

He nodded at the fish that was still on the floor, still untouched.

"I got you a present?"

"That's for me?". Latias had already guessed that, but now she was finally with Latios and he was about to ask her what she thought she was going to ask him, coherent thought went out of the window.

"Yes. I got it for you before they took you."

"And kept it all this time?" Latias couldn't actually believe it. He DID care for her! He did feel the same!

"Yes. I knew you were coming back."

Latias was absorbed in his voice and almost missed her opportunity. Luckily, she snapped out of it just in time.

"I did too...I got you a present!" She nodded to the packet of skittles on the ground.

Latios looked at the red packet, surprised. Latias smiled back, he didn't expect that! While he inspected the packet, Latias looked at her own gift from him.

The smell of her present ended up to be too enticing and after the brief glance at Latios, she dove down and picked it up in her mouth, before flying back to Latios. The taste of its skin was amazing. And it was very tough skinned - if was what the flesh tasted like, well, the meat should taste more than amazing.

Latios did the same with his gift, even if he didn't quite know what it was. It looked like a normal bag of sweets from Alto Mare, but it was covered in all kinds of scents, and it was very brightly covered, exactly like the kind of berries he liked. Except, this was clearly man-made. Not that he was in a situation to be picky: Latias had been kidnapped, after all. There probably wasn't much chance for foraging. And anyway, she was perfect.

Latios watched as Latias started to eat the fish in mid-air, taking a bite, moving her head forward to catch it, and swallowing the rest of the bite, repeating the process for each mouthful. She was staring at him the whole time - not once did those orange eyes stop looking into Latios' red ones.

Latios ruffled his tail feathers again, hesitating, before jumping straight to the point.

"Latias...will you be my mate?"

Latias knew that was going to be the question. Knew it. Even had an answer prepared. Even then, the coos wouldn't come out for a few seconds, she was that surprised. After all, Latios did have several females practically clamouring around him. Absol and Gardevoir, to name a few. She also dropped the Relicanth on the floor in the process, not that she was focusing on that any more.

"Derg...Mehhner...Ahhn. YES! YES! I was going to ask you to be MY mate!"

Inside, Latios breathed a sigh of relief. There was nothing to worry about after all. Latias DID think he was attractive. She DID want to be his mate!

On the outside, both dragons simultaneously put their snouts back together and let out the closest thing they could do to laughs, a happy cheering noise that made Lorenzo and Bianca turn around.

"What was that?" Bianca turned all the way around to look into the clearing, to see Latios and Latias snout-to-snout in mid air. She could tell that both of them were happy by the angling of their wings and their voices. But Lorenzo went one step further in his analysis, keeping his voice hushed as he explained to Bianca.

"That's odd...hmmm...look at Latias. She's normally in a curved shape, but now, she's as straight as an arrow."

"So? She's just happy to have Latios back. And I am too!"

"Bianca dearest, look more into it. Have you ever seen them like that before? I think Latios has just asked Latias to be his mate, and she's accepted." His voice remained quiet, but the note of excitement was plain to hear.

"Er...okay...how do you know that? And why are we whispering?"

"We're whispering because any loud noises now could spook them quite badly and in this situation it could get a rather nasty response. Look at things from Latios' point of view. He was morbidly depressed, then a female turns up with a nice straight body, slightly bloodied from getting back to him but at the same time, a really shiny red coat. What would you do?"

"I'd make sure she knew I was interested. So Latias looks more rigid in order to show off to Latios?"

"Yes. And by the looks of them now, I'd say it's worked, wouldn't you?"

"Oh. That's so sweet! So that means?"

"It means we leave them alone for now. This isn't something that humans should interfere with. We can all hug Latias after Latios has finished giving her a cuddle. Anyway, we've got to solve the mystery of this guy." Lorenzo nodded at Mac who was still slumped at the base of a tree, knocked out. "Latios thought he was threatening. I think we should keep him here until he wakes up and we can ask a few questions. Well, not here. But somewhere where he can't escape."

Bianca frowned, not pleased with the way the old man was thinking. For Latios' and Latias' sake, she tried not to raise her voice.

"Are you really suggesting we tie him to a bed until he wakes up?"

Lorenzo looked downcast.

"Well, actually, we can't tie him to your or my bed, and we don't have a spare. There's a boat in my workshop that's heavy enough. It's not like we have a choice. If he escapes he could tell everyone about the twins. And we can't let that happen, not now..."

Bianca took another glance at the reunited duo. It was a tough decision, yes, but they couldn't let him out of the garden until they found out who he was. She nodded slowly, still not happy but otherwise stuck with what to do.

"I know, it's not nice. But we need answers. Now...err..."

Lorenzo glanced at Mac, assessing on how to move him.

"You grab his legs, I'll get his head. If he wakes up, I'll cover his mouth until we're far enough away from the lovebirds."

When Mac woke up, it was dark and cold. Very cold. And very, very dark. Almost like he was blind. But he didn't shout, even though he wanted to. Who knew what the darkness hid? One thing was sure, he could hear what sounded like waves on a beach, and although he couldn't feel anything at all other than the ground underneath, he could smell the scent of freshly cut wood.

Slowly, Mac moved his head and arm, intending to press the button on his watch that would light the digits and at least tell him the time. But when he reached for his watch, his fingers touched a rope, not a plastic watch strap.

This had Mac panicked, but he forced a level head and checked his hoodie pocket next. It was empty. Someone had taken his watch, phone, keys and wallet while he was out. Mugged? No. Muggers didn't tie people to...

What was he tied to?

He shuffled round and felt along the rope. It ended two feet away, on the edge of another wooden construction. Knotted to it, by the feel.

Mac desperately wanted light and as his eyes adjusted, he saw a crack of it, a horizontal line that was slightly brighter than the surrounding blackness. It was impossible to judge how far away it was. It was low down, so it was probably the light shining through the gap in a door.

Mac set about untying the knot around his wrist. But without light, it was next to impossible. It was wound around three times and finished with so many twists and turns, Mac couldn't even find the end of the rope.

With nothing else for it, he started on trying to untie the other knot, in the process knocking something with his foot. It made a sloshing noise.

Mac was already feeling for the shape of the container. It was large and had a handle on the side. Plastic. And it had liquid contents.

Mac sniffed it, but didn't smell of anything. Was it water? He was thirsty. Very.

He dipped his finger in and it was cold, then took it out and dabbed it on his tongue. Water, or some other flavourless chemical.

Mac took his chances and lifted the jug to his face, being careful not to spill water down himself. As much as he wanted to chug the whole jug, it was cold and he didn't fancy having cold damp clothes.

Thirst quenched, he started on the knot once again.

He'd just undone a second loop, when he heard a rattling noise. He stopped and glared at the source of the noise, looking into the darkness.

His optimistic side said it was someone coming to save him. His pessimistic side said it was something much more worse. Some sort of animal coming to finish him off.

If both sides had placed a bet, the optimistic one would have won, but only after a fight between the two involving various improvised weapons, some small arms fire and a NATO/UN resolution that elected an improvised leader for the initial transition period.

Because while it was someone coming to help him, the 'someone' was also an animal.

With a whoosh, the door to the workshop opened and Latias flew in, identifying and flying directly at Mac, also smothering him in the process. She was squealing the whole time, with no psychic translation.

"Mac! I'm so sorry! I was asleep with Latios and forgot all about you and then I found out Bianca had tied you up and now here I am so let's go. Wait, you're cold, let me warm you up!"

Thus she preceded to sit on Mac.

Mac was blinded by the sudden burst of light from the door, but had enough information to know that it was Latias, and that she was now apparently smothering him.

"Latias! I'm not an egg! Stop laying on me! Gerr off!"

Latias was too happy to do that though, and also concerned for how cold Mac was. He didn't have feathers or much fur aside from the hair on his head, and what clothes he had were so soaked from sweat that they made him even colder.

"Nope! Your my little egg!" She had to admit, It was kinda cool looking after him like this.

Mac didn't agree. The only thing that jutted out from under Latias was his head, and even then her neck almost blocked it.

"Latias! Off! And start answering questions! Where am I, what time is it and What am I doing here?"

Latias giggled as Mac writhed underneath her. It would be ace if he was a little baby Latias. Then she could keep his wings all warm and neat, and fetch him berries...

Except Mac wasn't a baby Latias. He was a human. And a very tall human at that.

"Latias! Answers?! Are we going to be OKAY?"

Latias stopped daydreaming and turned her neck around so her snout was almost tickling Mac's nose.

"I'm home! And it's your home too! Latios, Bianca and Lorenzo thought you were part of Team Rocket, so they put you in here until I woke up and told them you were a friend."

"I see. And Lorenzo is?"

"Bianca's granddad."

"And Bianca is your owner."

"NO! She looks after us, but she's not our owner. She's more like a sister."

"I see. And what time is it?"

"Winter almost."

"Time, Latias. Not season." Latias didn't really care what time it was. Most of the time, it didn't really matter. If you were tired, you slept, If you were hungry, you ate. There needn't be a set time for that kind of thing. A season was much more useful. Latias had noticed that certain berries only grew during certain seasons, her heat depended on the season and it got warmer and colder depending on what season it was. Seasons were a lot more useful than a time.

"Sorry. It's mid day, the day after we got back."

"Tomorrow!? I've slept for an entire day!?"

"You were very tired. I was. Besides, Latios hit you into a tree. You got enough water?"

"You mean, am I thirsty? I was, but I had a drink before you came in."

Latias let off a pleased noise, glad that Mac wasn't too offended that her brother had knocked him out.

"So, where are we? Exactly?"

"Lorenzo's workshop, where he makes the boats. Look!"

Mac strained his neck to see. With the door open, enough light was getting in for him to see his surroundings. His arm was tied to the figurehead in the shape of Latias, which in turn was attached to a long boat. Around that boat were a series of smaller floats, in various stages of completion. Mac couldn't see any way in which they were powered, but a few of them had harnesses attached. Did a human pull them?

Either way, Mac was glad that he'd ended up with a person who also liked building things. The workshop looked big enough to work in, but not too big as to be a handful. All old fashioned wood cutting tools were hung up on shadow boards, and there was also a white sheet on the floor around a float that Mac presumed was in the process of being painted.

"Bianca paints the floats that Lorenzo makes. Then they sell them to islanders. They're all unique and everything, and most of them have me on them!" Latias explained.

Mac gave up trying to physically lever Latias off himself and tried verbal persuasion again.

"Fantastic. Now I know that, could you please get off me so I can meet the rest of your family?"

"You won't get far while your tied to that boat."

"I was hoping you'd help me with that as well."

Knowing the game was up, Latias hovered back up off the ground and bit the rope midway between Mac and the boat. The moment he was free, he stood up. The action made bits of dried blood crack off his hoodie and fall to the floor. He winced. Most of that blood wasn't his own. Latias, meanwhile, was already out the door, and ushering Mac to follow with a series of coos.

"This way Mac!"

"Look at that!"

"That's my swing!"

"That's the soul dew. I'll show you that some other time. It's kinda complicated."

"Through here! Almost there!"

Latias hadn't bothered providing a psychic translation, so all Mac was aware of was that Latias wanted him to follow her.

Eventually, she led him out of the archway and up to the rear of the house, where he halted. Despite having spent the last 20 hours asleep, he was still tired, and at first Latias thought that was the issue. She coo'd encouragement.

"Bianca's just in here! She'll sort you out! You can sit down inside! She's kind!"

Mac wasn't worried about Bianca, or too tired to carry on. He was worried about Latios. He'd only met him for a few milliseconds, but is first impressions had really made an impact. Literally.

"Where's your brother? I don't want him hitting me again."

Latias flew back to Mac, switching back to psychic to help.

"He's not that bad, he just thought you were hurting me. He knows what happened now, though, and he wants to meet you anyway to say thanks. Anyway, he's gone hunting now. Come on!"

Mac stood still.

"I'll protect you. Promise!"

"Hmmm..." Mac didn't sound convinced, but followed Latias indoors after she'd nudged the door open with her snout.

The moment he stepped inside, he was confused. He'd entered a warm, medium sized kitchen, and stood on the opposite side of a center table, was Latias in her human form.

But that was impossible, because Latias in her dragon form was floating just in front of him. There was a silence for a second. Then Mac snapped his fingers.

"Oh, I get it! You can clone yourself!"

The real Latias shook her head and made a 'nope' sound.

"What? But...that's you," - He pointed at Bianca - "And you're you," - he pointed at Latias. "So there must be two of you!"

Bianca decided to speak up, as it looked like Mac was getting pretty distressed.

"No, there's not two of us. You've seen me before, remember?" This only served to puzzle Mac even more. He pointed an accusing finger at Bianca.

"YOU CAN TALK!?"

"Yes, I can talk. I am human, you know. My name's Bianca. Latias says your called Mac?"

Things finally clicked over with Mac. He remembered now, though he'd only seen her before tucked under Latios' wing before he'd knocked him out.

"Oh! Bianca! Latias' owner! Oh...errr...I'm Mac. Mac Simmons." The bumbling tone said, extending a hand out for Bianca to shake, like he was James Bond.

Bianca declined the handshake, but smiled as well as she could considering a blood stained teenager had just stumbled into her house and started accusing her of not being a human.

"Well, then. Mac. I'm sorry for tying you up in the workshop. By the time Latias had had a sleep and explained who you were to us, a day had passed! No hard feelings, I hope...you should probably get yourself cleaned up. So...we've got some old clothes that might fit you. Although I don't think I've ever seen someone so...tall...before."

She was right. The average Alto Mare citizen was around 5 foot 5 inches. Mac was a comparatively huge 6 foot 1 inch. She paused for a second.

"Anything's better than what you've got now, though. We should probably bin that hoodie. I'll get some clothes, you can take a shower. Then we can have a sit down when Lorenzo gets back and we can talk about what's going to happen next"

Mac nodded, but Latias had her own opinion to include.

"Mac's staying!" She flew up to him and nuzzled his shoulder.

Bianca nodded and Mac breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yeah he's staying. No doubt. But where? And what is he going to do? Be a trainer? Or a professor? We need to find some way to fit him in with this world, since he doesn't even have a birth certificate, if Latias has explained right. You come from a place that doesn't have Pokemon, right? I heard that right?"

Mac nodded.

"Latias was the first Pokemon I'd ever seen."

Bianca made an 'ummm' noise.

"Let's get you in that shower for now. Lorenzo should be home soon."

After showing Mac where the shower was, Bianca headed back downstairs and called Lorenzo, who had gone out for groceries. Latias had opted to guard the door of the shower.

"Gramps? Yeah? Good. You know I said Latias told us that guy was good? She was right. Or at least, he seems decent enough. He's just woke-" Lorenzo interrupted her and Bianca paused while he spoke.

"Yeah. Yeah. He still had those muddy clothes. How long until? You're five minutes away? Okay, cool. We'll play it by ear."

Five and a half minutes later, Lorenzo walked through the door, Cubone on shoulder. Latias was imminently down the stairs and yapping at his boots.

"MAC! HE'S GOOD! LET HIM STAY! Pleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaasssssseeee e? We're friends! You tied him to a boat!"

Lorenzo smiled at Latias apparent affection.

"Yes, I know. It's all very exciting. Let's all just calm down a bit and-"

"HE'S STAYING! STAY STAY STAY STAY STAY!"

"LATIAS! Calm down!" Lorenzo said more firmly and Latias went abruptly silent. He started taking off his boots and explained the plan.

"Me and Bianca are going to have a chat with this Mac fella and get to know him just a little more and sort out where he's going to stay and that kind of thing. We'll be an hour, two max. Then you can play with him."

Lorenzo knew that was Latias really wanted, and she stopped yapping for good when he said she could play with him. She turned her attention to Cubone, and stretched her neck out for him to walk along, which he did, stopping at her midriff and sitting down.

Lorenzo started walking towards the lounge as Latias flew back up the stairs with Cubone on her back, presumably to wait for Mac. Bianca followed Lorenzo into the lounge.

The two stood, facing each other. Lorenzo spoke first.

"I have no idea what we're going to do". Bianca didn't find this reassuring.

"We'll do what we can. He can stay on the second floor for a bit? Right?"

"Yes, but Bianca, think long term...no one knows who he is, and I'd really like to hear where he's come from. Outside this region?"

Bianca shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

"No. Apparently he's from a completely separate world. They don't even have Pokemon there."

Lorenzo shook his head.

"No, not possible. Poor guy's probably got memory loss."

"But Latias-"

"We'll see what he has to say for himself first."

* * *

Since my online debut (For more info, youtube "Kinectemon") went so well, I'm setting up a blog. If I can concentrate long enough. SEED NEEP!


	14. Chapter 14 - Home at last

Started the power generation project. AHHHHH! THE NUMBERS, MASON! WHAT DO THEY MEAN?!

* * *

"So then, Mac. I'm Lorenzo, this is Bianca..."

The three humans were sat in the lounge, Bianca and Lorenzo on one sofa, Mac on the other. The air was similar to that of a job interview, but it was obvious all three weren't really sure what to do.

"I've met Bianca." Mac nodded, trying to look intelligent. He actually looked like he was the defendant being asked to confirm his name.

"Yes, you have. So, Mac...er..." Lorenzo stalled for a second, before resuming with a less official-sounding voice.

"I'll be honest, I have no idea what happened, or who you are, or where you're from, or how you managed to find Latias. Why don't you fill us in on those details and we'll work from there? Seems like a plan?"

Mac nodded and started.

"Okay... Let's see..."

Another pause while he got his facts together.

"My full name is Marc Simmons. That's Marc with a 'c', not a 'k'. Everyone calls me Mac though. I'm from England, in a town called Sheffield. Er...I'm seventeen? Two and a bit weeks ago, I was nearly run over by an articulated lorry. You've seen them right?"

Bianca and Lorenzo both nodded. Alto Mare may not have cars, but they'd seen lorries on TV.

"Right. So it was a big 18 wheeler thing. Really long story short, I broke into where it went, and when I got there I snuck around a bit, turns out it was actually a military base. When I got inside, I found Latias and we escaped."

"Escaped? Why'd you escape, couldn't you just leave?" Lorenzo asked to show he was listening.

"Not really. People were shooting at us, they didn't want Latias to leave her cage. It was an escape."

Bianca looked shocked "She was in a cage? That's horrible!"

"I know, which is why I was helping her escape. Anyway, they started looking for us all around the country, so we had to leave. And Latias took us both here."

Lorenzo did a small nodding motion.

"Okay. It's obviously a longer story than that, but that'll do for now. So what's this about not having Pokemon then? Last time I checked, England had Pokemon. Every city does. Why didn't you catch Latias?"

Mac leant back.

"Well, firstly, England is a country, So I think we're on about two seperate England's here. Do you have a map of the world?"

"Not with me, No. But if you say it's a country...carry on."

"Okay. Where I'm from, we don't have anything like Latias. We've got animals, like dogs and cats and rabbits, but nothing that can fly without flapping its wings, or send thoughts to people."

"We have animals here too. Cats and dogs are rare though. You have to go to a zoo to see them."

To Mac that made sense. The Pokemon, with their powerful attacks, would easily be able to be predator to the bog-standard animal.

"Okay. Well, where I am, those animals are common, but Pokemon don't exist. Not in zoos, not anywhere."

"Why didn't you catch Latias then?"

"She asked me this too and she had to explain it to me. I don't know how to 'catch' her. Anyway, she's not mine to catch."

"She's a wild Pokemon, it's fair game."

"Well she said that she's friends with you. And anyway, I don't know how to."

Lorenzo smiled. Mac seemed a decent person, and he prioritised getting Latias back to her friends over his own agenda. Still...

Lorenzo took out a small red and white ball from his pocket, and pressed the button on the front. The pokeball expanded.

"Can you tell me what this is?"

Mac's eyes widened.

"Not really...it was cool how it got bigger when you pressed that button though. Can I have a look at it?" Mac reached a hand forwards.

Lorenzo passed the ball to him for closer inspection. It was an empty pokeball, and there wasn't any harm in giving it Mac.

"Just keep it away from the Pokemon."

Mac turned the ball over in his hand and tried crushing it back to its normal size, but the ball stayed put.

"Is it one of Latias' toys?"

"No. Latias and Latios aren't allowed anywhere near them. Cubone probably wouldn't be too pleased if you went near him holding it either."

Lorenzo gestured for Mac to give the ball back and he did, asking a question as the ball changed hands.

"Why?"

Bianca took over the role of explaining without any prompt.

"Well, you know how we asked why you didn't catch her?"

Mac nodded.

"The ball allows trainers - that's people who want to train Pokemon - to catch them. Once they're registered to your Pokedex, you can throw the ball at a Pokemon and it'll 'catch' it. Once it's caught it's stored inside the ball until you call it out again. And by stored, I mean it's physically put in the ball."

"But Latias wouldn't fit inside that ball! Are there bigger ones?"

Bianca blinked. She was born into the idea that Pokemon would just 'fit' in a Pokeball. The notion of it being smaller wasn't something she'd considered.

"Er...there are different kinds? You've got the net ball, and the master ball, and the dive ball...but you don't need to worry about that. Just don't let the ball go near a Pokemon if you haven't already captured it or you're prepared for a fight."

"But how does something like Latias fit in a ball that small?"

"Science, Mac. I don't know. They just do."

Lorenzo could see Bianca turning irritable and reigned the conversation back in.

"The point I'm getting to, Mac, is that we're happy to let you stay here, but you need to do something. I was thinking you could train to be a professor, but you don't even know about Pokeballs. You'd struggle to be a trainer now, since you're seven years behind everyone else."

"Can't I just get a normal job?"

"What do you mean by normal?"

"You know. Like, an engineer? Designer? Systems administrator? Shop keeper? Anything normal?"

"Here, it's normal to be a trainer. Bianca is, technically. But she hasn't touched her Pokedex in a year."

Bianca nodded, and Lorenzo looked up at the ceiling, trying to think of what to do with Mac.

"I tell you what. There's an opening at the place I work. It's an easy job, don't need to know your Pokemon, a bit physical, but you don't have to do much. The pay is low, but it's better than sitting around all day."

Mac considered. "Well, what does Bianca do?"

"She paints. But I doubt you're that artistic, and besides, it's a bit late to build up a portfolio."

"Fair enough. What's this job at the station then?" Mac had been assuming it was a weather station, not a TV station.

"They call it 'Lighting Engineer'. All you have to do is go up a ladder and point a light around from time to time."

"Right then. I guess I'm doing that."

"Good. I'll sign you on on Monday."

Mac thought he'd have to go through an interview or something, so he was surprised that Lorenzo could get him a job so soon.

"Wow...thanks!"

Lorenzo smiled. "You're welcome!"

They sat there in silence for a minute, Mac in particular as he absorbed what had just happened. The complete strangers who were friends with two dragons had housed him, given him a job and some temporary clothes, all within the first day of meeting him. He didn't even know them. It was time he asked some questions.

"This is all good and everything, but how did Latias end up in my country to start with? She can't have flown all that distance by herself."

Lorenzo gave a wise nod.

"Fair question. And the answer is, we're not 100% sure. All we know is that Team Rocket abducted her and took her away in a helicopter while they poisoned Latios. That was just about a fortnight ago."

"Oh. Who are Team Rocket?"

"You really aren't from round here, are you?"

"No. Who are they?"

"Team Rocket... They're bad, put simply. They've always got a reason to try and steal Pokemon, especially rare or powerful ones. They hardly ever say why, but when they do, it's not very watertight. There's always an alert on the news telling people to watch out for them. Their symbol is a red capital R on a white background."

That last bit echoed in Mac's head.

'Red R on a white background.' Mac could see it. It was the same logo that was adorning the lorry that nearly ran him over. The guards security passes. Latias' cage...

"But, that would mean that my government, and this Team Rocket thingy are linked". He received blank stares and apologised.

"Sorry...it's just, this is all just so...overwhelming...to think..."

He stopped talking for a few minutes as Lorenzo and Bianca stared at him.

"Is this real? You're not kidding, right?"

Bianca shook her head as Lorenzo grinned even more.

"Nope, this is real. You've been through a lot to get Latias back to us, and since money isn't a problem for us, we're happy for you to stay with us. Really, it's our pleasure!"

Mac still couldn't believe it.

"And Latias and Latios? They're your friends?"

"Well, duh. We wouldn't feed them and let them in the house if they weren't. Actually...speaking of those two..." Bianca whispered in Lorenzo's ear. He listened, then moved away and gave her a knowing look. Bianca got up off the sofa, excited, then ran out of the room.

Mac cast a raised eyebrow at Lorenzo. Lorenzo tapped his nose in response. To say nothing had been said, the conversation certainly said a lot.

A minute later, Bianca walked in the room, followed by Latios. It was evident he thought he was being brought in to play, and he jumped around in the air around Bianca. Lorenzo just leaned back and watched as Bianca faced Mac, Latios calming down for a second.

"Now, Mac. You know Latios, right?"

Mac winced. He did know Latios. It would be hard to forget the thing that had hit him a few meters.

"We've met. Briefly."

Bianca smiled.

"We know, and he's sorry." Bianca glanced at Latios, who had started to make a dive for her beret. "Look, he even wants to play now!"

Mac flinched as Latios bit the beret and flew far enough away to be just out of Bianca's reach. He also didn't know where this demonstration was going.

As Bianca tried out-staring Latios, she carried on talking to Mac.

"Do you know what type they are? Latios and Latias are both dragon type, and a bit psychic."

At the end of the sentence, Bianca lunged for the head wear, but Latios just moved his head to the side and Bianca missed.

"Well, I can see why. He saw that coming..."

Bianca made the tongue clicking noise and pointed to the ground in front of her. Latios flew further away, reluctant to carry out the instruction. Bianca did it again, this time adding English.

"Latios! Heel!"

He gave out and flew back to her, making a disgruntled noise. Something told him Bianca was only bossing him around to make a point to Mac.

Bianca took the beret off him with one hand and gave him a rub behind the ears with the other, which lightened his mood somewhat. It was nice, after all.

"Right. So, what I'm thinking is, since you've got the dynamic duo already clamouring around you, why don't you do a bit of dragon training on the side?"

Mac's response was to look petrified.

"No. No way. No They may look tame to you, but he's really scary. Latias isn't that bad, but still..."

"Hmm... What if I showed you this?" Without further ado, Bianca leaned forward and tickled Latios' mouth. He opened it reflexively and Bianca put her hand between the rows of razor sharp teeth, smiling at Mac as Latios felt confused. Why was Bianca putting her hand in his mouth? That was just weird. He made a confused noise.

"You see, Mac. They're harmless once you get to know them. He wouldn't hurt you at all". She spared Latios further embarrassment and removed her hand, wiping it on his down. Latios snapped at her hand twice playfully as she did, but ended up butting her side and cooing happily.

Mac didn't look convinced. "Perhaps later. It'll be better if I just settle down for now. Keep a low profile, you know?"

Bianca shrugged and pushed Latios away from her as he made another go for the beret. He coo'd as she pushed him.

"Come on! I want to give it Latias! She'll love it! It's all soft and cool!"

Bianca responded by ushering him out of the door. "No, no. Come on. Go and find Latias, we'll be talking for just a bit longer". The door closed with a thud.

On the other side of the door Latios groaned, irritated with Bianca closing the door on him. She just wanted more time with Mac, and her scent made it a dead give away what she thought of him. Speaking of female scent, he could smell Latias behind him, and Cubone. Before he could react, she had nuzzled up against his arm, Cubone on her back and making a disgruntled noise. Latios just laughed.

"Aww, you're just jealous because you don't have a mate. Try evolving."

Cubone shrugged off his advice. "Hey! We can't all be perfect like you."

Latios was about to bring up that at least he didn't reject/ignore everything that came his way, but that wasn't exactly true. He'd passed off a Gardevoir and Absol for Latias. He ignored that for now and nuzzled Latias.

"Bianca's trying to get Mac to be a dragon trainer. And she's getting a bit too attached to him". It was more of a concerned mumble.

Latias took the news in the opposite perspective.

"Cool! Attached? What, like a mate? Perhaps Bianca can have a mate too! An we could play with the little humans! A dragon trainer? He can play with us?"

"I think he'd do that anyway. And that's not good, Bianca shouldn't have a mate yet!"

"I think she should. She smells okay to me"

"She's smelt like that for a year now. Anyway, Mac wouldn't be a good mate. He looks weedy. And he doesn't know anything"

Latias knew it wasn't strictly true, Mac knew a lot of things. It's just a lot of them were useless things no one would ever, ever, need to know. She focused on the dragon trainer bit instead.

"It be cool having a trainer though. A proper one, not like Bianca. She's not that fun when she's training."

Cubone watched as the conversation went backwards and forwards and the two eons exchanged cuddles. It was nice, but also saddening in a way. The pair were certainly happy. Latias certainly would enjoy having Latios as a mate and having his...offspring? Would they be pups, or chicks? Well, they would fly, and would come out of eggs, so it would be chicks. Then again, they weren't technically birds...so it wouldn't be chicks as such...

On the other hand, Cubone hadn't seen another female Cubone or Marowak for years. He wanted a mate, but one of his own species, and there didn't appear to be any of those left on Alto Mare...

Latias picked up on his mood and looked at him, twisting her neck so she was looking at him upside down. He giggled in an effort to appear happier, but his aura stayed the same.

"Are you okay, Cubone?"

Cubone sniffed. "Yeah, fine. You guys just look so happy!"

Latias knew there was more too it than that, Cubone was sad, not glad. But he didn't look like he wanted to talk about it, so she just grinned and went back to Latios.

"Why don't we play outside while we wait for Mac?"

Latios shook his head.

"It's getting cold outside. You stay in here, I'll catch supper."

Underneath her feathers, Latias blushed. Latios didn't need to catch supper, but he was going to anyway. It also meant that she could go and have a nap in the bath. Which just left Cubone, on his own.

Latias cheered and nuzzled Latios one more time, before he set off out of the kitchen. Cubone tugged on Latias' ear and cleared up the issue of leaving him.

"I want to sit with Lorenzo! And Mac!"

Latias smiled and went for the lounge door, turning the handle with her snout and shouting as it flew open in front of her.

"TACTICAL CUBONE!"

Cubone had shifted to her back, unaware of what she was going to do. Latias flew halfway through the door, and then stopped, pushing her rear up and flipping Cubone across the room in a precisely aimed catapult. He landed on the cushion next to Lorenzo, upside down and laughing. Lorenzo glanced at Cubone, glanced at Latias, then looked back at Cubone against the arm of the sofa. Without a hint of alarm, Lorenzo picked Cubone up, turned him the right way up and sat him on the chair normally.

Mac was sat almost shell shocked. He hadn't actually seen Cubone before, and the thing appeared to be wearing a skull on its head.

"Bianca? What is that?"

There was a shriek of Lati-laughter as Latias flew up she stairs, and Bianca picked Cubone up and held him out to Mac.

"His name's Cubone. He's a Cubone. Wanna hold him?"

Mac did not want to hold the grotesque creature. It was wearing the insides of a dead animal on its head. And it's femur on its right paw. But the thing was holding its arms out and looked passive, so Mac agreed.

"Err... Okay then?"

Mac reached for the Pokemon, but Bianca opted to place him on his lap instead, Cubone facing Mac's chest. The moment he was down, Cubone poked Mac's stomach with the bone out of curiosity. Mac was tensed from Bianca putting Cubone down, so the bone met the ring of muscle and stopped, a feat with Cubone found admirable.

"Hi Mac! You're tall. Really tall!"

Mac had to admit, It sounded cute. Plus Bianca was wearing a hopeful look.

"Aww, that's cute. Does he understand English?"

What Mac really wanted to know was why it was wearing a skull on its head. The skull was clean and didn't appear to have any soft tissue on it, but all the same... No, best not to ask. Perhaps it was religious...

"Yep, he can understand English. Most Pokemon can, to a degree"

"Oh, Cool. Hello Cubone!" Mac waved his hand too, making it clear he wanted Cubone to copy, which he did, waving the bone back at Mac.

"So, is this Latias' baby then?"

He didn't think that it was. It was brown and had fur, Latias was red with feathers. But you never knew. It was a conversation point, at least.

Cubone and Bianca both shook their heads.

"No, he's two different types. He's a ground and fighting type, Latias is dragon and psychic."

"Oh! Latias told me about how types work! Wait, sooooo...Cubone can do ground and fighting type attacks!"

"Yep!" She was going to say more, but Cubone looked like he was about to do some kind of attack, and she changed her tone so he'd listen.

"Cubone! No! Not inside! You can show Mac later. I'd imagine he's still quite tired."

Cubone twisted what facial features were visible so he looked put down and Bianca immediately felt the need to apologise.

"Oh, no no no! It's not that you're not impressive, but you're so powerful you'd wreck the room doing that!"

Cubone made a pleased noise before padding Mac's lap and sitting back down on it again. It was silent again as mac looked back down on Cubone.

Eventually, he looked back up, impatient to get going.

"Oh, okay... So, err... not to sound impatient, but where will I be sleeping?"

Lorenzo took this one.

"Well, we haven't got a spare bedroom just yet, but we don't use the second floor much. I think we've got a few spare sleeping bags as well. You can sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor until we get something more permanent sorted?"

It wasn't like Mac had any other options.

"That's fine. What else do we need to sort out?"

"You in a rush?"

"No, its just that...I'd really like a nap or something."

Lorenzo smiled and stood up.

"I thought you might. Are you sure you're not hungry or anything?"

"Nope. I just want a rest for now, if that's okay?"

"No problem. Follow me. Cubone! Let mac get up!"

With a sigh, Cubone jumped off Mac's lap and onto the sofa, and Mac stood up to follow Lorenzo, closing the door after himself. The two chatted as they made their way up the stairs.

"So, what do you think?" Lorenzo asked, his tone sounding hopeful.

Mac didn't know exactly what he was on about.

"Er...about what?"

"About Latias and Latios?"

"Oh...Latias is pretty cool. Is she this hyperactive all the time?"

"Pretty much. Latios?"

"Scary. Although when he was with Bianca just now he looked really tame."

"He is, to the people he wants to be. I think he'll like you, though."

"Hmm..."

Lorenzo pointed out each room on the first floor to Mac as they walked to a panel in the roof.

"This one's Bianca's room, that one's mine. There's the bathroom and the toilet. That room there is the dragons'. And up here..."

Lorenzo used a pole propped up against a wall to nudge the panel in the roof. It activated some kind of mechanism, and it swung down, bringing a ladder with it.

"Is the second floor... We never got stairs put in, perhaps we should now...anyway, follow me"

Lorenzo climbed up the ladder and flicked a switch on the side of it, making a light on the second floor switch on. To mac, it seemed like a trap, but he followed anyway. It wasn't like there were any other options.

When he got there, Lorenzo was rummaging in a cupboard. Mac watched as he pulled out two bags. One looked like it contained a sleeping bag, and the other had a ground mat sticking out of it.

Lorenzo took the bags and looked around the open-plan landing they were in. It was exactly the same as the landing on the floor below, and after a moments hesitation, he went for the room that was above Bianca's.

"Ahhh...yes. This is the art studio. Bianca doesn't use it much anymore, but there's plenty of room."

Lorenzo flipped on a light and Mac looked around. The room WAS sizeable, but quite a lot of the floor space was covered with easels and other art equipment, most of which had a tiny layer of dust on them. For some bizarre reason, Mac suddenly panicked that he hadn't got his antihistamine tablets.

"It's fine for now." Mac smiled as Lorenzo passed him the bags. "All I want is a short nap, then I'll be ready for whatever else we need to do."

Lorenzo smiled back.

"No problem. Give us a shout if you need anything."

"Thanks!"

Lorenzo left and pulled the door closed behind himself. The room sounded oddly quiet after the initial thunk of the door.

Mac took out the roll mat and sleeping bag, crawled inside, and in under a second, was fast asleep, a smile on his face. No matter where he was now, he was glad he could call it home.

_Fin_

* * *

AAAAAAAND THAT'S ALL FOLKS! Happy ending , right? Lol nope! Mac still has to come to terms with the world of Pokemon, and what about Latias and Latios? Think they're going to have an entirely normal relationship? LOL NOPE! Wasn't Absol going to have some pups at some point as well? As for Bianca and Mac? Did you really think I was going to leave it there? No?

Try the sequel to this, "Day to Day", Available on my profile now: "So Moving, I suffered from motion sickness!", "Poor Mac!", "I like the usage of pathetic fallacy in chapter 5 in order to make Absol's plight seem more distressing and therefore further associate the reader with the virtues of life!"  
(No award to the person who guesses which of the above reviews was written by an English Literature student)

**_BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!_**  
If you're wondering what Latias' journey was like and what (or should we say, who) she saw at Team Rocket, the prequel to this, if you like, check out 'Entrapment' by 'Aura Spirit'. Find him in the reviews!

See you on the other side,  
Richard L.J Sowden,  
AKA The Moderator.


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